Delinquent: A Dark Psychological Thriller (The Debt Collector Series Book 2) Read online

  Derrick was satisfied that Michael would be here for the rest of the day. He would return around lunch time to get a handle on where Michael went or what he did with his lunch break. In the meantime, Derrick would head back to Michael’s new house to check in with Stephanie and Allison. Derrick had bigger plans than just Michael. He would kill Michael for sure. But he wanted Michael to feel something before he pulled the plug on him. Derrick wanted Michael to understand loss. While Michael lost Andrew, it wasn’t enough for Derrick’s plan. There had to be more loss. There had to be more suffering. Derrick would see to it that Michael understood the gravity of his actions. Michael would realize when his beautiful wife and daughter died horribly.

  Derrick started the engine and put the car in drive. As he pulled away from the curb across from Hilltop Farms, Derrick smiled at himself in the side view mirror. He noticed the blackness in his pupils. It brought tremendous satisfaction to him to read the coldness in his own eyes. He hoped Michael would see the same thing when they came face to face.

  Chapter 4

  Stephanie moved her food around with the fork. She wasn’t particularly hungry tonight. It had been a long day unpacking boxes and setting up each room. The work was tedious but it had to be done. She wanted the house to feel like a home. And she knew it wouldn’t until everything was in its place.

  The dinner table was mostly silent. Michael had talked about the farm and the people he had met today. Stephanie found it difficult to listen to him tonight. It’s not that she wasn’t interested in his new job. She was just preoccupied with thoughts about the move. Her sleep patterns were restless and she had trouble relaxing because of the stress of the relocation. And part of her felt like she had left Andrew behind.

  Allison finally broke the silence with a complaint about her new teacher. Apparently the woman was too serious for her liking. Stephanie was surprised by how much Allison had seemed to grow up over the last few months. It seemed like yesterday that she was a quiet little girl who went about her school activities without much fanfare. And now she was a brooding pre-teen with very strong opinions about people and emotions. Stephanie noticed that a lot of what Allison talked about these days centered around how things made her feel or how they hurt her. She couldn’t figure out if it was just part of the normal female maturation process or a coping mechanism spurred by the tragic death of her brother.

  Once Allison finished her brief complaint the table fell into silence again. Only the sound of forks scraping along dishes filled the thick air. Stephanie stole a glance across the table. Her eyes met Michael’s. They both held the attention of each other before Michael painstakingly smiled and then returned his gaze to his plate. Stephanie glanced at Allison, whose eyes went back and forth between her parents as if she were watching a tennis match. Stephanie again noticed how perceptive Allison had become.

  “So...” Stephanie started to speak out of sheer panic and then thought better of it. Michael and Allison stopped chewing and watched her to see what she had to say. “Uh, ahem, excuse me, I think we should be settled in a few more days.” She looked back down at her dish.

  “Great. That’s great, honey.” Michael tried very hard to sound enthusiastic. But his tone was hollow.

  Stephanie felt irritated by Michael’s response. She couldn’t determine exactly why. But it did. “Yeah. Great.”

  Michael sat up straight. He rested his fork on his plate and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Is there something wrong?”

  “Why would anything be wrong? Our lives have been turned upside down. And we live in the sticks. Nothing wrong with that.” She laid the sarcasm on extra thick.

  Michael’s face scrunched. “I thought we decided this was the best thing for us?”

  “We did. Well, you did.”

  Michael looked perplexed. “We discussed this at length. Together, Steph. We decided together.”

  Stephanie bridled at the reminder. “Well, we discussed it alright. But it was your idea to get a change of scenery. Move out to the middle of nowhere with no friends or family. Get a job for peanuts so you could enjoy the sunshine. That sound like a decision that I would have made?” She slammed her fork down.

  Allison’s eyes were tearing up as she witnessed her parents and their meltdown.

  “What could we do back there, Steph? Huh? Nobody would talk to us. Nobody wanted to know us anymore. And the memories...the memories were too painful. A grim reminder...” Michael sounded like he was about to choke up.

  Stephanie pushed her chair back and stood. “Nobody wanted to talk to YOU, Michael. It was YOU that they were avoiding because of what you did.”

  “What I did? What did I do, Steph? What the fuck did I do? I worked my ass off to keep this family afloat while you stayed home with the kids. I did what I could to make it work for us on one salary. And we BOTH made the choice for you to stay home. Do you remember that?” He tossed his napkin on the table. His eyes shot darts across the room.

  Stephanie realized she was crying but she wasn’t done. The anguish welling up inside needed to release. “YOU killed him, Michael. You killed our son. It was YOUR decisions that led to all this. Not mine.” She brushed her forehead with the back of her hand and looked at the ceiling to try to gain composure.

  Michael looked devastated. His eyes brimmed with tears of his own. He stood up. “How could you say that, Steph? How could you blame me for what Derrick and that monster did to our family? I fought them to try to protect us.”

  “Well maybe fighting wasn’t the right thing. Maybe doing your job and whatever Derrick wanted was the right thing. We needed money for Ally’s treatment and all you had to do was go along with the program. Suck it up and take one for the team, Michael. OUR team!”

  Michael spun around. His breath was heavy as he tried to control himself. He turned back and looked at Allison. She was crying softly and staring down at her plate. “It wasn’t right what Derrick was doing. I couldn’t live with myself if I did things illegally or anything that was morally corrupt.”

  Stephanie placed her hands on her hips. She shook her head at Michael with disgust, at his moral high ground. Her hands trembled with the anger that pulsed through her veins. “How about now, Michael? Can you live with yourself now? Now that your our son is dead? Now that we are crushed? Seems to me that living with yourself the other way would have been much easier. No? Can you live with yourself NOW?”

  Allison’s crying became a wail. She dropped her fork on her plate and held her head in her hands. Her little body shook as she cried.

  “No. I can’t live with myself now.” Michael appeared deflated. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he stared at Stephanie. But she couldn’t look back at him. She threw her hands in the air and then left the dining room. She walked down the hall and closed the door to their bedroom behind her.

  Stephanie flung herself on the bed and wept into the pillows. The sorrow now replaced the rage. She knew she wasn’t herself these days but it was too much to keep bottled up inside. She loved Michael and she regretted lashing out at him. The blame didn’t rest solely with Michael but he was the only one she could direct her anger towards.

  What really bothered her was her fear of being alone with Michael. Allison’s complicated procedure was coming up but the doctors told them there was an unusually high chance that Allison would not survive the surgery. But her chances of survival were better than not accepting the procedure at all. Without the surgery, she would definitely die. And Stephanie didn’t know if she could handle losing both children. Plus, saving Ally’s life was the only reason Stephanie had right now to stay with Michael.

  Stephanie cried herself to sleep.

  Chapter 5

  Allison heard a soft knock on her bedroom door. She stiffened at the thought of having to deal with them right now. After the fight at the dinner table, Mommy had stormed off to her room. And Daddy had cleaned up the table and washed the dishes. She had hidden away in her bedroom.

  She slid off the bed an
d went to open the door. Allison realized she was still clutching Andrew’s teddy bear. She tucked it under her backpack on her desk chair. Then she opened the door to find Daddy standing in the hallway.

  “Can I come in for a minute?”

  Allison nodded. She turned and climbed back onto her bed. As Allison settled on the bedspread, she pulled an over-sized stuffed pencil into her chest. Andrew had won the stuffed toy at the boardwalk in Wildwood last summer. He gave it to her after she lost every chance she had at winning her own prize. Allison heard the ghosts of the boardwalk, “Watch the tram car, please. Watch the tram car, please.” Her and Andrew used to laugh and repeat the tired warning phrase as the trolley carried folks back and forth along the boardwalk.

  Her father sat on the end of the bed. He appeared very tired with bags under his eyes. And they were still red from crying. Allison knew she had to look at him while he spoke, but she didn’t feel comfortable right now.

  “Look, I hope you understand that Mommy and I are just adjusting to the move. I know it has been just as hard on you as it has on us. I don’t want you to think this will be the norm around here.” He patted her leg.

  Allison glanced at her father quickly and then looked down at his hand on her leg. It felt like caterpillars were crawling in her belly. The same feeling she had before taking a test at school, or when she knew she was getting in trouble for something. Her left eye began filling with a tear but she quietly coaxed it away in her mind.

  “We’ll be fine in a few days. Like Mommy said, once she gets us settled things will start to feel like home again.” Daddy smiled at her. She noticed and then looked down again.

  “And I’m sure you’ll end up liking your teacher as you get to know her better. Just remember that she is adjusting too. A new student added to a classroom can be stressful for a teacher.” He patted her leg again and stood. Daddy leaned down and kissed her forehead. She smelled alcohol on his breath and wondered if her father was going to become an alcoholic. Cindy Wilson’s mommy from their old neighborhood always had that smell. And Cindy used to tell Allison how her father left because her mother was always on the sauce. She never understood why they called beer a sauce.

  “Anyway, I’m sorry for yelling before. And I know you hate my cursing. I shouldn’t have used the bad language again. I’m sorry. When I get upset, I tend to say bad things.” He stared at her. Then he walked to the door.

  “Get some sleep. You need to save all your energy and rest up for the big day coming soon. The doctors said that rest was the best prep for the long surgery. That way your body could fight harder for you. Okay?”

  Allison nodded, still clutching the stuffed pencil. Her father smiled again and then closed her door. She listened for his footsteps to fade down the hallway. She let out a large sigh of relief, not realizing that she had been holding her breath almost the whole time her father was in the room.

  The room felt stuffy. She pushed the stuffed pencil aside and went to the window. The lock was on so she switched it off and raised the window. A rush of evening breeze blew her hair back. It felt so good.

  Allison went back to the desk chair and picked up Andrew’s teddy. She sniffed it deeply, catching the faintest scent of her brother. That was what she missed most about Andrew. His scent. Every time they wrestled. Every time they cuddled in front of the television. Every time they had “sleepovers” in each other’s rooms, it was always the same smell. A musky, soapy boy smell. Allison didn’t know what else to call it. It was just Andrew.

  Her thoughts returned to the battle at the dinner table. Allison was really hurt when Mommy said Andrew was dead because of Daddy. She knew that wasn’t true but why would Mommy say something so terrible? And how could Mommy be so mean to Daddy? She was afraid that her parents would get divorced like so many of her friends’ parents. It didn’t make sense to marry someone and then leave a few years later. Allison knew she would never walk away from her husband. And she wouldn’t allow her husband to leave her either. It wasn’t right.

  In a way, the fight had helped Allison. She was so scared about her upcoming surgery. It was all she could think about. And she knew that she was taking out her fears on her teacher and her parents. At least while they were fighting at the table, she had a few minutes to avoid thinking about her health problems. Although, the diversion was just as stressful.

  Allison went to the window again. She stared out into the darkness. Their new house was so far out of town that there were no street lamps here. The outside was pitch dark unless they had the driveway lights on. Tonight the lights were off.

  As she stared into the blackness, Allison thought she made out the shape of a car across the street. It seemed weird for a car to park in that spot because it was very dark and there was nothing but forest on that side of the street. The neighbors’ houses weren’t close enough to the their home for someone to park there while visiting. She was confused and thought maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her. Allison rested the teddy bear on the bed and leaned on the windowsill for a closer look.

  Just then a car engine started. The sound startled Allison and she backed away from the window. She heard the car drive away but she couldn’t see anything but blackness. Allison leaned forward again to take a closer look when she noticed a black shape drifting off down the road. After a few more seconds, the headlights and taillights flashed on. She watched the car shrink as it got further away.

  Allison didn’t understand why a car would have stopped in such a creepy spot. She figured it must have been some teenagers who were up to no good until she scared them away. She shrugged and climbed back into bed. She clutched the teddy bear to her chest and stared at the ceiling. So many thoughts ran through her mind. The fight at the table. Her surgery. Andrew. It felt like it was going to be another long, sleepless night.

  Chapter 6

  Michael dropped the bags on the cart. The sweat dripped from his brow. It was hot this morning. And the first customer who arrived needed twenty bags of top soil and mulch. Michael hoped there would be a tip included since he was doing all the work. The customer, an elderly gentleman with plaid shorts, black socks and white tennis shoes, seemed content to follow close behind and bark out orders. Michael never got the whole fashion statement of these older guys. Every so often he would see one of these fellas mowing their lawn in a similar outfit. He grinned to himself that it was like these guys fell into their closet and walked out with an ensemble costume. If mullets were all business in the front with a party in the back, then what was this look?

  He wheeled the cart to the parking lot where the old man pointed at an older Buick. Michael couldn’t believe how cliche this guy was. The man popped the trunk and Michael began loading in the bags. Each time he placed a bag into the deep trunk he felt a twinge in his lower back. He realized he wasn’t getting any younger. Then the thought quickly transitioned to his future. A time when he would be dressed like this guy and busting the stones on some younger buck at a garden center first thing in the morning.

  As Michael placed the last bag in the trunk the old man tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, pal. Don’t forget my bag of peat moss. I paid for a bag of peat moss too.” The man nodded his head at Michael twice as if to say he caught Michael trying to cheat him out of something.

  “Right. I’ll be right back.”

  Michael wheeled the cart back into the fence line and walked over to the stacks of bags. There were bags of stones, sand, and just about any other dirty element the earth produced. He scooped up the huge bag of peat moss. The bags were funny. They were packed densely into a brick but packaged in the same plastic fabric as the mulch. And they were always much lighter than they appeared in comparison to their size. But still an unwieldy product.

  When Michael approached the Buick the old man was looking at the trunk and then at the brick of peat moss. “Well that ain’t gonna fit in here. Why don’t you put it in the backseat. But try not to get everything all dirty.” Michael didn’t need to be told tha
t the bag wouldn’t fit in the trunk. Any moron could see that. And the guy was worried about getting his backseat dirty when he drove a twenty year old car with a dent in the rear panel and rusted bumpers.

  He shoved the peat moss into the back seat without worrying about the muddy trail it left behind. He turned around to gleefully thank the customer on his way back to the greenhouse when he almost ran into the quarter. The old man stood with an outstretched hand and a shiny quarter pinched between his thumb and pointer. “Here’s a tip for you, young man.”

  Michael took the quarter and smiled at the old guy as he got into the Buick and started the engine. He stood in place, staring at the quarter in his palm. The car rolled backwards as the old man backed out of the parking spot, narrowly missing Michael’s foot. He tooted the horn and waved as he pulled the jalopy away. What has my life come to, Michael thought to himself. He was lugging heavy bags of filth for minimum wage and a quarter.

  As he pocketed his big tip Michael felt like he was being watched. A chill ran down his spine and he couldn’t help feeling like he was in the cross-hairs of a long range rifle or something. The feeling was eerie and overwhelming. He spun around in a circle, checking the parking lot and then the farm fields which stretched beyond the buildings. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. But it didn’t feel right either.

  Michael glanced down at his cell phone and it showed that it was ten minutes after nine. His stomach sank. He was hot and sweaty and pissed off already. And work had technically only started ten minutes ago. Michael didn’t count the hour and a half before store hours as work even though he was on the clock. He only counted hours with customers since that was when work wasn’t as fun. He stuffed the cell phone back in his pocket and turned to go back to the greenhouse. He was supposed to water the potted flowers and prep for a shipment of products coming in this afternoon.