Mary McDonald - No good deed

“Someone you know?”

Sheridan’s final grimace, frozen on his face, shouldn’t bother him so much. The bastard had it coming. “Yeah, I know him, that’s for sure.” He flipped the picture over. “It’s Sheridan.” Mark stood and paced to the window.

“Jim Sheridan?”

“Yep.” That third beer called to him and he heeded the call. With the phone tucked between his chin and shoulder, he opened the fridge and retrieved two more bottles and returned to the sofa. “And hundreds of others.”

“Shit.”

“My thoughts exactly.” He laughed, but the sound died in his throat. “What do I do?” It wasn’t fair to ask her. It was his responsibility. He sucked in a breath. His responsibility. Had he answered his own question? Grabbing the third beer, he gave the top a savage twist.

Jessie’s voice cut through his inner turmoil, “Listen, Mark. I’ll be home soon, I’m just leaving work. We’ll think of something. Have you eaten yet?”

Mark lifted the beer; despite the calories, it wouldn’t count as food. “No, I’m having my own little cocktail party.”

He heard her sigh. “I’ll grab some takeout. Don’t worry, we’ll work this out.”

Mark nodded again. “Okay.”

Jessie juggled the bags of Chinese food as she opened the door. “Hey, I’m here.”

Silence greeted her announcement. Puzzled, she set the bags down on the counter and went to the living room. Mark sat on the edge of the sofa, the fingertips of one hand resting on the mouth of a beer bottle. His other held a photo.

She walked to the back of the sofa and stopped behind him. Three empty bottles lined the right side of the coffee table. “Mark?”

Mark started and the bottle teetered, but he steadied it before it toppled. He looked over his shoulder. “I didn’t hear you come in.” His voice sounded wooden and his eyes were dull.

She leaned over and nuzzled his neck. “I brought food. Come and eat.”

“Don’t you want to see the pictures?”

“Not yet. I think we should eat first.”

“Oh. Okay.” He stood, swayed for a second, then ambled out to the kitchen.

He sounded distant and he hadn’t even asked what she had brought. “I got Chinese.”

“Sounds good.”

“I hope it tastes as good as it smells.” She had a feeling she could have brought him a plate of dog food and he would have had the same reaction.

Mark loaded a plate with fried rice, cashew chicken, and egg rolls. Jessie filled a dish for herself as well, and poured glasses of ice water for the both of them. Mark didn’t seem to notice when she took his beer and set it on the counter. He had brought the pictures in with him, and they lay face down on the table beside his plate.

“I wonder what he’s doing at a Cub’s game?”

Mark stared at the end of an egg roll. “Yeah, I can’t picture him in that light.” He shrugged and took a bite. After chewing for a few seconds, he said, “I guess he’s a normal guy most of the time.”

Jessie scooped up a forkful of fried rice. “Okay, so maybe we can get him to cancel his game plans.”

Mark put the egg roll down. His mouth set in a hard line as he stared past her, his fingers drumming on the table. He didn’t speak, but bent his head and took a deep breath. After a lengthy silence, he met her gaze, his expression defiant. “What if I don’t want to save him?” He turned the pictures face up, then pushed them across the table.

She winced at the images and set her plate aside, no longer hungry. Even though she knew what the guy had done to Mark; had even seen the pictures of it, she couldn’t hate him. Jessie recalled the day she met Sheridan. Her first impression had been that he was cold, but then she saw something else. A dedication that she understood, and she couldn’t help admiring his attempt to seek the truth.

Jessie searched his eyes, knowing that she had to word this just right. “I know that Sheridan isn’t high on your list of favorite people.” Ignoring his ‘ya think’ expression, she continued, “but he still doesn’t deserve to die.” She swallowed hard, shooting another glance at the picture. “None of these people deserve to die.”

“Maybe it’s karma.” Mark pulled the picture in front of him and his arms rested on either side of it, his fingers still drumming. The table jiggled rhythmically and Jessie knew without looking that Mark’s leg would be bouncing.

It would be so easy to agree. Jessie squared her shoulders. Easy was never the best option. “It probably is karma or payback or whatever the hell you want to call it, but there’s a reason you get these photos and dreams, Mark. You have this…gift-this power, to see the future.” He cringed at that, but Jessie forged on, “I don’t think you are supposed to pick and choose who you’ll save.”

Mark glared at her before shoving away from the table. He snagged his beer off the counter and stormed into the living room.

Jessie sighed, resting her forehead in her hands. What a mess. She stood and began to put the food away, deciding to let Mark settle down a bit before approaching him again. Refilling her water glass, she took it out to the living room.

Mark leaned a shoulder against the window frame, his back to Jessie as he stared out the window. Every so often, he tipped the bottle and took a swig.

“I should hate the guy.” He sounded weary.

Jessie muted the ball game.

Mark tilted the bottle, draining it. He absently picked at the label, peeling it back. “The things he did to me…” He sighed, then crossed to the sofa and sat beside her. “I should have felt glad when I saw him in the picture.” He raised one shoulder in a half-shrug as he pulled the label completely off the bottle. “But I didn’t. All I felt was sick.”

“Sick at what happens to him? Or…” She left unsaid the other option, that he felt sick that he would have to save Sheridan.

“I’ve been thinking…what if he interrogates someone and they have information. Real information. Not…not like what I had.” His voice dropped and it sounded like he almost swallowed the last words. Mark set the bottle down on the coffee table and smoothed the label flat. He turned to look at her. “What if he learned something that would save other people’s lives?”

Jessie hadn’t considered that, but now that he mentioned it, it made sense. “And if you don’t save him, then that information remains unknown.” The idea was mind boggling.

Mark nodded. “Yeah. It would mean that, maybe, there was a purpose for…for everything.”

“Like that was the reason you were locked up?”

“Ya know, when I was gone, I thought about the camera a lot.” Mark slouched back against the arm of the couch, his legs splayed at an angle under the coffee table. “There wasn’t much else to do, and I must have gone over every picture that ever came out of it…and every dream I had.” He paused as though organizing his thoughts, his gaze flicking to hers. “I realized that I had a connection with at least one person in every single photo.”

Jessie pulled her leg up under her and leaned against the other arm, facing him. “What do you mean? What kind of connection?”

He took in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “I didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight, I found connections in at least eighty percent of them, and I’m sure if I researched it, I could find some for the other twenty percent.” Mark sat up, his pose mirroring hers. “Some were people I’ve passed on the street in the neighborhood, or relatives of people I know…someone from college. Things like that.”

“And you never realized this before?” She reached for her water and took a sip.

Mark shook his head. “Nope. I guess I should have, but I didn’t. I mean, I realized some of them were familiar.” He lost the smile. “But most photos weren’t so obvious.”