Reed Coleman - Gun Church

“And Renee just happily went along with this?”

“Renee was the easy part to begin with. She was always hot for you and she never loved me like I loved her. I broke up with her and told her to go for it, to invite you to the chapel. She didn’t have to think twice about it. Later when she caught on, I had to persuade her to help me to help you.”

“You’re not serious.”

His smile disappeared. He grabbed my arm and yanked me around to face him. “Serious? Why else would the chapter have fallen into my hands?”

“What if Frank hadn’t snapped or if he had used a different gun or-”

“But he did snap and he did use that gun and he did get killed. What more proof do you need, Kip?”

“Get out of here.” I pulled free of his grasp, rubbing my arm where his fingers had held me. “This isn’t funny anymore. You’re really scaring me.”

“Did you know that when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus smelled pretty bad because he’d been in the ground for a while?”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he said, “but before you laugh at what I’m saying, you should think about it.”

“I don’t have to think about it. This is crazy.”

“Crazy? I guess that Haskell Brown guy who wouldn’t touch your book just conveniently got himself murdered to suit your career.”

“What are you telling me?”

“Just that you must be the king of coincidences, Kip. Bad things happen to other people so good things happen to you. Is that the way the universe works?”

“Jim, come on, you’re a sharp guy. Now you’re stringing together unconnected incidents into a wishful narrative.”

“And you’re whistling through the graveyard.”

“Very cute.”

“It’s not meant to be.”

“What do you think you’re going to get out of this, Jim? You don’t need to build yourself up in my eyes. You taught me how to shoot, how to handle my fears. All that, your friendship, getting me back in shape, helping me write again, isn’t that enough for you?”

“That’s like me asking you if you’d mind someone else putting their name on your book. Without me, there’d be no you, no Gun Church .”

“When you say those kinds of things, it worries me. I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t need your worry.” He shoved me down and stamped his feet on the boardwalk. “This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out.”

“How were they supposed to be?” I asked, pushing myself up onto my knees.

“Not like this. You’re supposed to understand about how smart I’ve been and be happy and thank me for everything I’ve done for you.” More tears, but this time he was sobbing, loudly. “You’re … disappointing me … Kip.”

I almost told him to go fuck himself, but Renee’s warning about the danger to Amy, of disappointing Jim, was never far from my mind. “But I do see, I swear,” I said, if not very convincingly.

“Don’t lie to me. Don’t fucking lie! I couldn’t take that. I’ve killed for you. I can kill to hurt you too.”

“Stop it!”

His chest was heaving and he was raging. He was on me before I could move, threading his hands around my jacket lapels and pulling me to my feet.

“Stop it? I’m just getting started. Think about the weekend Haskell Brown died. Remember, I borrowed your car to see-”

“-a girl who went away to college.”

“That’s right, Kip. Too bad that wasn’t the truth, but I couldn’t tell you what I was doing because you would probably have stopped me.”

“Stopped you. Stopped you from what?” I asked although in my belly I knew what he was going to say.

“I wasn’t visiting any girl. I was up here doing what had to be done, getting rid of the one thing standing in our way: Haskell Brown. I enjoyed beating the shit out of that guy. He kept asking me why I was doing it. He kept asking until I broke his jaw. You should have seen what he looked like before I put a hole in him.”

“Bullshit!”

“The truth. Did you ever bother checking what kind of gun it was that killed him? You didn’t check because you didn’t want to know, did you? You still don’t want to know, but I’m going to tell you. It was a.25 Beretta and your fingerprints are all over it. Don’t worry. I got it tucked away in a nice plastic bag for safekeeping. No one will ever have to see it unless you get some stupid ideas about going to the police. And there’s a record of your car’s trip from Brixton to New York and back. I bet you didn’t know all the states along the East Coast accept our state’s electronic toll pass. So it would be real stupid for you to go to the police. I used all this to get Renee to let me read your book, to help me. She really loves you and would do just about anything not to have me turn the evidence over. I mean anything.”

“Let go of me,” I screamed, trying to break his grasp. “Let me go!”

“Not until I’m done.”

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Fuck you!”

“Fuck me? No, Kip, you’re the one who’s fucked. You’re the one with all the blood on his hands. You grabbed Frank’s gun. Haskell Brown, he’d still be alive if you didn’t want to publish again so bad. And poor Lance Vaughn Mabry … I forget now, did you plant that idea in my head or did I plant it in yours?” Jim was no longer crying and the rage had calmed to an unsettling whisper. “I guess that was your idea. You’re full of good ideas.”

“You’re telling me you killed that kid?”

“Your books are the blueprints. Don’t you see, we’re only the instruments in a bigger plan. It took me some time to understand it.”

“You killed Mabry?”

“Just like in Gun Church . Renee dressed in a black wig, short skirt, and real high heels. I waited outside the bar in a stolen van. When they came out, I followed them to where I told Renee to take him. I shot him right through the windshield.”

“Renee wouldn’t do that,” I said, struggling to breathe against Jim’s fists tightening around my collar.

“You’re not listening to me, Kip. I told you, she had to do it to save you. She knew I had the Beretta with your prints on it. I made her choose between you or some kid she didn’t even know. ”

“Fuck you!”

That didn’t go over well. He let go of my lapel with one hand and buried his fist in my gut. Gasping for breath, I collapsed. I hugged my belly, my cheek flush against the wet boardwalk planks.

“Look what you made me do! Look what you made me do! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck . I don’t want to hurt you, Kip.” He sat down next to me, arms around his knees, rocking. “I saved your life. Don’t make me take it away.”

I ignored that and the pain. “You’re lying. Renee was visiting her family upstate the weekend that kid was murdered.” My voice was strained and cracking. “She was visiting her brother Jake back from Afghanistan.”

“She doesn’t have a brother Jake or any kind of brother, and she’s not from upstate.”

I struggled to my knees for a second time. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that Stan Petrovic isn’t dead and buried.”

There was that smile again. “No, he’s dead all right. I made sure of that. I guess I sort of neglected to put live rounds in his gun. I set most of it up, but you played your part without even realizing it. Man, Kip, when you threatened to kill Stan in front of folks at the hardware store, you made things that much easier for me. Be tough for you to explain away him turning up dead, shot by your gun after threatening him. Like I said, Stan’s dead. On the other hand, he’s not exactly buried.”

The world wobbled beneath me as I willed myself to my feet. My ability to function since killing Stan had been based on the belief that Jim, Renee, and the rest of the people in the chapel had acted honorably, that they had done as promised, burying Stan’s body in a place in the woods somewhere he would never be found. Now I couldn’t be sure of anything.