Matthew Stokoe - Empty Mile

Stan picked up his pan and tugged unhappily at Rosie and the two of them set off down the meadow. I went and stood beside Marla on the stoop. A minute later the E-type rolled down the track.

When Jeremy Tripp got out of the car I felt Marla flinch. He stepped onto the ground in front of the cabin as though he were taking ownership of everything around him, us included.

“Log cabin… Very rustic, but don’t you worry about fire?”

“Not especially.”

“Really? I have to tell you, it’s of some concern to me. You really don’t worry about it?” He gazed off down the meadow. Stan and Rosie were just entering the trees. “Smart move sending your brother away. I expect he doesn’t cope well with stress. Shall we go inside?”

Without waiting for an answer he climbed the steps and walked past us into the cabin. Marla looked dull and white and I felt a cold hand close about my stomach. For a moment neither of us moved, then we turned and went inside.

Jeremy Tripp sprawled on the couch. Marla took a chair as far away from him as possible and I stayed standing. Jeremy Tripp smirked when I didn’t sit down.

“Standing won’t do you any good, John. All that stuff about sitting with your back to a window, having your chair higher than the other guy? It’s all pointless if you don’t have the goods. There are only a few things that really allow you to dominate an exchange. Money is one of them. Knowledge is another. Strutting around the room usually means you don’t have either.”

“What do you want?”

“There was a fire at my warehouse last night.”

“Oh?”

“Surprised? So was I. Fire department says it was arson. That got me thinking, as you might imagine. The target’s a warehouse full of plants. There’s another plant company in town whose business I’ve pretty much annihilated, run by someone less than kindly disposed toward me.”

“Just because I have a plant company doesn’t mean I started the fire.”

“I’m not saying it does. You’re probably not stupid enough to do something so obvious.”

“Okay. Good. So what’s this about?”

“You’re not stupid enough… but your brother is.”

I felt the cold hand around my stomach tighten. “Stan’s not capable of doing anything like that.”

“Anyone can do anything if the circumstances are right, and it’s been a tough old time for Stanley. Business going down the toilet, losing your house… If you don’t have a strong mind these things can push you over the edge. It’s just a guess, of course, but I’d say Stan’s mind is a long way from strong. Finding out his girlfriend likes to pose for nude photos can’t have helped, either.”

“That was a fucking evil thing to do.”

“Was that what happened? He saw the photos and lost it? Went on a rampage with a can of gas?”

“You’re insane.”

“But close enough to the mark.”

“You don’t have any proof at all that that’s what happened.”

“Do you really think I need any?”

“Get the fuck out of my house.”

“John, when I go to the police and tell them I believe Stan set fire to my warehouse they’ll take him in for questioning. Proof won’t come into it because two minutes after they sit him down he’ll have told them everything himself. You know he will, there’s no way he could stand up to being questioned.”

“What do you want?”

“To make the community a safer place. We can’t have people running around setting things on fire.”

“You mean prison? Are you fucking joking? We’re talking about Stan here. It would destroy him.”

“Do you think I care about that?”

“This is about you and me and Marla and Gareth and that fucking video. Don’t bring Stan into it.”

“Maybe you could persuade me not to.”

“I already asked you what you want.”

“Cancel your lease on Bill’s warehouse and move out. I want to buy the land.”

“But we won’t be able to run our business.”

“You’re hardly doing that now. And I want this land, as well.”

“What land?”

“This land, here.”

“Are you joking? Why?”

Jeremy Tripp shrugged. “Because you have it. You’ve got to understand, I’m honor bound to take everything you have. You and that Gareth twerp and your slut here.” He pointed his chin at Marla.

“The fire was just what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

“You made a mistake. You should have looked after your brother better.”

“How do I know you won’t go to the police even if I do what you want?”

“You don’t. But what choice do you have? I’m saying I won’t tell anyone. What are you going to do, fail your brother again by not even trying to save him?”

Giving up the warehouse didn’t bother me much, Plantasaurus was on its last legs anyhow. But Empty Mile was a whole other matter.

“I’m waiting, John.”

“The warehouse lease I can cancel as soon as I get ahold of Bill. But the land will involve a lawyer. I’ll need a few days to arrange it.”

“Just as long as you don’t dilly-dally.” Jeremy Tripp stood up. “And now, to seal the bargain, I’d like your girlfriend to take care of me.”

“Take care of you?”

“Blowjob.”

“Fuck off. She doesn’t work for Gareth anymore and she’s not whoring herself to you.”

Jeremy Tripp looked at me like I was insane. “Your brother will go to prison. At the very least a psychiatric institution. Do you think he’ll ever be the same again? Do you think you will, knowing you could have saved him from it?”

I hated the idea of Marla going down on Jeremy Tripp, but it was the lesser of two evils. She would be a little more damaged because of it but she would still be Marla after it was over. Stan, though, most definitely would not be Stan if he was locked up for any length of time.

Of course she knew what I was thinking, or saw it in my face. She sighed and dropped to her knees in front of him and unzipped his fly. Over her head, Jeremy Tripp winked at me.

“Someone’s got some sense.”

I couldn’t watch and went to stand at the end of the room where the sink and the counter ran across the rear wall. When I got there I glanced over my shoulder. Jeremy Tripp’s back was toward me, buttocks clenching, hands wrapped in Marla’s hair. I turned away and braced myself against the counter, wishing the earth would open up.

When Jeremy Tripp started to make grunting noises my gaze wandered across the counter to the sink. To a large kitchen knife lying there waiting to be washed. I reached out and closed my hand around the brown wood of its handle. And then I turned and started quietly back across the floor.

Tripp had been taking his time but he wasn’t far away now and his hips were driving at Marla in hard thrusts, making her gag. I held the knife out in front of me. The distance between its blade and Tripp’s back was not great, maybe fifteen feet. I watched it narrow as I moved forward, this space that was all there was between the life and death of a man I hated.

Part of Marla’s face was visible past his right hip and she watched me with one eye.

I wanted to plunge the knife into his back and twist it. I wanted revenge for what he was doing to Marla, for what he had done to her in the past. I wanted revenge for the destruction of my brother’s hopes. I wanted this threat to our lives gone forever.

But I couldn’t do it. Halfway across the floor I stopped. For a moment I just stood there, pointing the knife at him. Then I turned around and walked back to the sink and stood looking blankly out of the window above it, listening to the sound of Jeremy Tripp ejaculating into Marla’s mouth.

Later, when he had gone, Marla brushed her teeth and stood at the sink and stared out the window with me.