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“What?” P.J.’s eyebrow lifted.
“I don’t want to sit here and watch the game for the next three hours.” She admitted.
“You don’t?” The astonished look on P.J.’s face made Juliet giggle.
“It’s like this…remember how you didn’t want to go on that tour yesterday when we drove through D.C.?” Juliet had known it was a long shot asking P.J. because D.C. was not a scheduled stop on their trip. And she had come to understand that he was definitely an A type personality when it came to schedules and appointments. But she had so wanted to see those monuments.
“Yeah. This isn’t the same though.” P.J. lifted his hands palm up as if they were weighing scales. “Boring bus tour.” He slowly pulled his left palm down. “Patrick Mahomes playing against Tom Brady.” His right palm shot up high in the air.
“You got that right, brother.” The bartender took P.J.’s money and winked at Juliet. “Your man has his priorities straight.”
“How about we have something to eat and stay for the first quarter?” P.J. asked.
“Sure.” Juliet compromised reasonably. If P.J. wanted to stay longer after that, she was fine to walk across to the motel by herself.
“I’m gonna step outside and make a couple of calls. Order us up a basket of wings, a large salad, a couple of drafts and whatever the hell else you want.” P.J. said. Then he gave Juliet a quick kiss and headed for the door.
Juliet ordered the food then watched with interest at the news show being aired before the game. It had been a while since Juliet had felt the need to connect with current events. In fact, she avoided it. She had had enough of daily broadcasting during the trial. More than enough actually, and that more than enough had sent her straight to the looney bin…literally. But now, Juliet munched on her salad and looked on with mild curiosity while the announcer commented on American politics, an extreme snow blizzard in Montana, and a sink hole that appeared out of nowhere and took out a whole neighborhood somewhere in California.
During a commercial break, the wings were delivered and P.J. still hadn’t returned. She could see him through the wall of windows with the phone plastered to his ear, his hands gesticulating wildly. Juliet naturally assumed that P.J. must be talking to a family member, and his dramatic movements made her smirk. Over the last few months, she had overheard bits and pieces of conversations that P.J. had had with his family. His Uncle Diego, in particular, seemed to have a special tendency to exasperate him. But the love that P.J. felt for all of them managed to shine through all the snarls, growls, and grumbles. In truth, Juliet was really curious to meet them. Tomorrow would definitely be an interesting day. Juliet looked dispassionately at the news show while she sipped on her beer and waited for P.J. to finish his call.
“What the hell? This asshole again?” The voice of the man sitting two seats away from Juliet broke into her thoughts. “Damn maniac. Thought he was behind bars?”
“Yeah, me too.” The bartender turned from where he had been wiping down beer glasses. Juliet followed his gaze to the flat screen television behind him. Kenny Brewster’s face was being flashed across the screen, and the broadcaster was talking about the second upcoming trial. “My sister was a freshman at the college when all that hell broke loose.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah, no shit.” The bartender shook his head. “Luckily, Shannon is on the timid side. She really wasn’t feeling the whole college experience, and after that first murder, she booked it right outa there. Didn’t even wait for my parents to drive up to get her. Got an Uber right to the airport and in a couple of hours she was home.” Then the bartender lifted his chin toward the guy at the end of the bar. “You wanna another draft, Steve?
“Sure.” Steve answered. Then he nodded grimly back towards the screen. “I think that there were six women he killed or maybe more. I lost count.” Then he turned to the guy seated next to him. “Do you remember how many there were, Josh?”
“Not sure.” Josh shook his head mournfully. “Whole thing makes me sick. It looks like now he’s being tried again. I read online that the crazy motherfucker had been killing for years before those college murders. I heard that those killings opened up an investigation that went back a decade. Hard to believe that no one knew. That no one had been able to see what a sick shit this loser was. He had a wife, right?”
“Yeah, I think so.” The bartender nodded. “She was cleared of any complicity though, I guess.”
“She’s the one who turned his ass in.” Steve chimed in again. “Ran him over or some crap.”
“Hard to believe she didn’t know…I mean come on…how dumb can the chick be?” The bartender poured out a couple more drafts.
“Nah, it can happen. I mean, my damn wife was cheating on me for a year.” Josh said. “I had no clue. Too busy working my ass off. I know it’s not the same, but I had no idea where she was when she was with him. She just as well coulda been out blading someone, I wouldn’t have known.”
“Well, that only goes to show that you’re one dumb fuck on so many levels.” Steve told Josh. “You’ve got poor instincts and you’ve got zero common sense. Maybe this psychopath’s wife was the same way.” Then he pointed out by way of illustration. “My sister is one messed up crazy bitch. I told you not to marry her.”
“And I should have listened, I think we’ve already covered this a million goddamn times.” Josh shook his head at his brother-in-law.
“Hey, Tammy’s here. And it looks like she’s brought Christine with her. Could be your lucky day, buddy.” Steve clapped Josh on the back, threw down a twenty dollar bill on the counter and they both disappeared into the crowd.
You’ve got poor instincts and zero common sense. Maybe this psychopath’s wife was the same way.
Hard to believe no one knew. He had a wife, right?
I mean come on…how dumb can the chick be?
No one saw what a sick shit this loser was?
The words ran through Juliet’s mind as she tried hard to keep upright in her stool. The shock was unimaginable. She had never expected to see her murdering ex-husband again, especially not in a sports bar just outside of D.C. At first Juliet couldn’t make sense of it. She couldn’t tell fact from fiction. It seemed as though Kenny had busted his way out of her nightmares and into her reality. When those two worlds collided, Juliet felt it in every core of her being. Her body stiffened like a board, and her arms fell limp at her sides. Juliet’s mouth had gone completely dry and her tongue was a lead weight in her mouth. In the full throes of a violent panic attack, she had lost all motor skills; her vision blurred. Her heart raced.
Then it struck her that another reason that Juliet had been caught so off guard was Kenny himself. When she had first looked at the screen, she hadn’t known who he was. The transformation from man to monster had been alarming in its completion. Gone was any semblance of the young academic she had married. Although it had only been just about three years since his arrest, Kenny had aged a thousand lifetimes. His once thick, shining, carefully coiffed hair now hung in greasy limp strands on his shoulders. Kenny’s nose had been flattened and there was an angry, thick, red scar that ran down the left side of his face. His once lean body was now bloated, his shoulders were slumped and his back bent. The clear, blue eyes that had once looked at Juliet so lovingly, were now glazed over with a thick and impenetrable film of madness.
