Bea Cannon - A Small Gray Dot

“Huh?”

“Your hands, lay them on the table.”

He laid them down. There was bruising on the knuckles of his right hand. Looking closely, I noticed red welts on his face. Looked like Morgan got him down his left cheek. And then the bastard had hit her. My anger rose.

“You’ve seen her. Now, where is she?”

He looked scared. “I done told you, I ain’t—”

I moved fast and he screamed as my knife pinned his sleeve to the table. I pulled it out.

“The next one will be in your hand. Now, answer my question.” I heard Duncan and Percy coming.

He started blubbering as he looked past me. “M… M… Mr. Bedlow! I swear don’t know how they got in here! I ain’t told them nothin’!”

Duncan and Percy had Bedlow by the arms and walked him up to me. His hair flopped over his forehead and he wore a black suit. I wondered if he took it off to sleep. If he slept.

“This asshole was in a bed that stands him almost on his head – and still in his suit, Tenn,” said Duncan. “Told you he was a weirdo!”

So, he didn’t take it off to sleep. That was weird.

I motioned at the chair beside the one in which Harlow sat and Percy shoved him down. I stood over him.

Bedlow craned his head up, squinting. I could tell he recognized me. He gripped the arms of the chair.

“Mr. Bedlow. I see you remember me. Good. Then you know I’m a reasonable man. I’m looking for a young woman. Your guard says he hasn’t seen her. I don’t believe him. Where is she?”

He did a hard swallow and said, “He is correct. There is no woman here.” Then he did that giggle thing he’d done the first day I saw him.

I didn’t have time for his lies. I stabbed him in the hand and the knife went all the way through and into the arm of the chair. Along with bluish blood, a rancid, oily smell hit our noses. Bedlow screeched. It had a giggling effect mixed in with it. I wrenched my knife out, and he grabbed his hand and held it up for a minute and the bleeding stopped. The wound began to close.

And that removed my last shred of doubt about what he was, and any last sliver of uncertainty in my mind about the doctor’s findings dissipated.

Harlow gasped, I think Duncan did, too, but I wasn’t looking.

“God! What th’ fuck are you?” burst from Percy.

“Jesus!” That was Lem. He looked wide-eyed at me. “Is he some kinda robot?”

Harlow was trying to lean away from Bedlow, his face ashen as he sucked in air.

I ignored them. “Tell me where she is or I will cut your throat.”

His eyes narrowed and he sneered. “I don’t believe you. You won’t do that. If—”

I shook my head. “Last chance, Bedlow.”

He glared at me silently, and blinked. Twice. And I saw the alien in him, even more plainly than the odd blood because he blinked with two sets of eyelids.

One thought beat at me. They could have warned us.

They. Could. Have. Warned. Us.

The rage that I kept carefully in check unfurled and roared into being, and in sharp relief, images from the most horrifying day of my life flashed in my head. Of its own volition, my arm shot out and the razor sharp knife in my hand flashed across his throat.

I had not been able to stop myself.

ONE WOULD THINK HIS THROAT WOULD SPRAY blood everywhere but it didn’t. He gurgled, his eyes already glazing over as the oily smelling blue blood simply rolled out over his neck and down the front of his black suit. He slumped in the chair his head lolling back, the slash in his throat an obscene gaping smile. My hand only trembled slightly as I wiped my knife on the chair and shoved it in my pocket. I probably shouldn’t have killed him before I got some answers, but the move had been almost instinctual. I didn’t regret it.

The guys, wearing horrified expressions, had their eyes on Bedlow and I guess Harlow thought he’d make his move. He jumped up and was jerking his gun from its holster when I shot him. He screamed and grabbed his arm, flopping back down in the chair, the gun falling to the floor. I stuck out a foot and dragged it away from him. Neither Duncan nor the other two guys even flinched at the gunshot, and Lem, his eyes still on Bedlow, reached down almost absently and picked up the gun, and stuck it in his pocket.

Harlow, holding his arm, looked up at me slack jawed. “You shot me!” he whined.

No one paid him any attention.

Duncan finally tore his eyes away from Bedlow and peered at me. He seemed dazed. “Um, is this what the girl found out, what made her run?” he asked.

I took a breath, searching for calmness. I nodded. “Partially. There’s more and I’ll fill you in later. Right now, I need you to check the house.” I didn’t think Morgan was anywhere in the house but I wanted to make sure.

He nodded and darted out the door. I looked down at Harlow. I didn’t know whether he’d ever served any time on that assault charge but if he had, it hadn’t taught him not to hit women. I wondered why he’d come to Charlotte since he knew I lived here. I suppose he may have thought he was safe from me in Blue Heaven. He should’ve stayed in South Carolina.

“Remember I told you I’d shoot you if I ever saw you again and I wouldn’t be aiming for your foot,” I said softly. “You should learn to listen.” I aimed the gun at his head. “The next one won’t be in your arm. Now, where is the young woman?”

Shaking, his eyes fixed on the gun, he whined again, “I was jist doin’ what I was told! Me an’ Slim had jist got here for our shift. Mr. Bedlow told me that girl they was lookin’ for was caught at th’ gateway an’ for us to take th’ jeep an go git ‘er. We got back here an’ she was supposed to stay here but then Mr. Henderson called an’ said he wanted ‘er down to th’ Semptor so they took ‘er.” He groaned. “Please, git me to a doctor! I don’t wanna die!”

I heard a trickling sound and smelled urine. I looked down. He’d pissed himself. Again.

Lem, frowning at Harlow, said, “You know this guy?”

“We’ve met.”

He glanced at Percy who raised an eyebrow.

“He ever do that before? Piss his pants, I mean.”

“He has.”

Percy shook his head. “Weak bladder, huh?”

I shrugged. “Could be.”

I looked back at Harlow and raised an eyebrow but he didn’t seem to notice he’d wet his pants. “You’re not dying, Harlow. Now, who took the girl and how long ago?”

He groaned again. “Mr. Henderson sent Ken Talbert to git ‘er an’ Slim went with ‘em ‘bout forty-five minutes ago.”

So, that sack of shit was up and moving. Should’ve put a bullet in that kneecap. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

“Was she conscious when they left?”

He babbled, “Yeah, well, she passed out before we brung ‘er here an’ she was coming ‘round but she said ‘er head hurt so Ken gave ‘er two pills an’ said it was aspirin but it wasn’t because in a few minutes she acted like she was gonna pass out agin.”

Passed out? No, the asshole had cold-cocked her. I started to shoot him again but I restrained myself. For the time being. No telling what Talbert had given her but I had to believe it wasn’t anything that might kill her. Henderson needed her alive. Still, we needed to get moving.

Duncan came back in. “The house is empty, Tenn.”

Percy said, “What is Bedlow? He sure as hell can’t be human!”

I looked over at the alien. I half-way thought he might seal off his throat and wake up, but he was still dead. I guess he couldn’t heal a gash that big. Especially since he’d leaked out a lot of the stinking gore. He looked sort of deflated, too, and his skin had turned gray. Definitely dead.