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19
Dennis
When I got back to town, I had a message waiting for me from Chelsea. It sounded like she was freaking out, and she was talking so fast in the message that I couldn't even get what she was saying. The part of it I did get the first time around made me grow cold inside.
I called her and I asked her to repeat what was going on and to talk slowly. I didn’t want to believe that I’d heard it right. I wanted her to tell me something completely different, something that didn’t make me feel cold inside.
“I messed up, Dennis. I messed up really bad.”
“Yeah, that's what it sounds like. What happened?”
“I found out that you were going to find Kimberly and I got really mad. I mean, really mad, and then when you never came back, and I heard rumors that she was back in town, I thought you guys were together. I saw red, you know?”
“Yeah, it's not true, but so what?”
“Well, I was upset, and I did something very stupid. Something that I regret so bad, something worse than what I did to you.”
Now she had my attention. What she did to me was pretty crappy, so I didn't even want to imagine how much worse it could be. And to who? There was an eerie feeling coming back to me. She had mentioned Kimberly. Surely, she couldn't do anything to Kimberly. She was all the way in Maine.
“Just tell me what happened.”
“I saw a car leaving her house.”
“Whose house?”
“Kimberly's house. Keep up.”
“Fine, so you saw someone leaving her house, and then what?”
“And then...”
There was a long pause on the other side. I was getting quite frustrated with the whole situation, but it seemed like Chelsea had some explanation that she wanted to give me, so I figured that I needed to slow down and listen. I doubt that I was going to want to listen, but I needed to. I didn't have another choice.
“And then I slammed into the side of the car. I had my Jeep. You know the one my dad gave me that has an extra sturdy frame? “
I couldn't even believe what she was saying, what she was confessing to me. Why was she confessing this to me? She must have thought that I was going to be some kind of co-conspirator for her. I got a sickening feeling in my stomach. Everything that Kimberly had said was right. If only I had told the detective that I wanted to move forward with the charges. Kimberly would have been in jail, not out hitting people with her car. Jesus.
“Kimberly's in Maine.”
“Well, I didn't know where she was, but I knew that it wasn't her. It was a little too late though when I realized that fact.”
“Who was it?”
“It was her dad. Now he's in the hospital in ICU, and I went out there to check on him, you know, to make sure that he was okay, and he isn't. Not just that, Kimberly caught me there, and she said that she was going to tell the police what I did to you.”
Now it was starting to make sense. Chelsea was not calling me because she was worried about her soul or something like that. She was calling me because she was trying to get me to corroborate her story. She wanted me to lie for her so that she wouldn't get in trouble.
“You can't seriously be asking me what I think you're asking me. If you are, stop now.”
“You owe me, Dennis. I was there for you when nobody else was. Now I need you to be here for me. I am sorry I did it, really I am, but I don’t want to ruin my life and my family name because of one mistake.”
“This is more than I signed up for. I do owe you, Chelsea, and maybe I owe you something different than what you're asking for. I am going to talk to the detective. Maybe they can get you some help. Obviously you're not thinking clearly and could use some help.”
That just enraged her with even the idea of it and I knew that there was probably nothing I could do to salvage this situation. She was going to have to pay for her crimes, all of them. If not, she really was just going to get worse.
“Did you kill him?”
“What?”
