Title: A Hill of Beans
Author: Redsliver
Chapter 20
* * *Richie sat in the car smelling of the shampoo that Perla liked. It didn’t cover the fear. He looked at the little baggy in his hand. To him, it was a vibrant green, to everyone else it looked like cocaine. What was cocaine like? It was supposed to be an upper, a stimulant, an amplifier. What he needed was a downer. His heart was pumping wildly and the hair on the back of his neck and the back of his wrists was standing on end.
“Is that a lot?” Caitlin asked.
He turned to the girl in the passenger seat.
They were dressed up. Sort of. He not as much as her at least. She had on a blue party dress, low cut, showing off her small perky tits. No bra, no panties under that dress. Her nipples tented the silk. She matched it with ripped tights and sparkly flats.
Nat had done Caitlin’s makeup. She looked slutty, almost amplified by the seat belt burn still marking up her long slender neck. She felt, not slutty, but sexual and ready and easy as a slut. They had played Hate Me Like You Love Me Like You Hate Me on the radio. Richie had turned the car off before the song finished.
That song had been so cheesy, boring, normal to Caitlin days ago. Three hours to the concert and now she could feel her heart pumping hot lava through her veins.
She wanted to dance.
She wanted to grind up against Richie at least.
Caitlin had never been much of a dancer. Richie even less so.
Richie sat forward in a silk shirt and skinny jeans. Nat’s work again, having bought the outfit in hopes to see Richie’s ass in it. If Caitlin and Perla hadn’t felt him through the denim with such unrelenting lust in their eyes, he might have stripped them off for his preferred overly baggy jeans. His hair was gelled up, Nat again.
He never realized how often he ran his hand through his hair while he was thinking before he had the hardening paste crackling against the touch of his fingers.
“It’s been enough every other time,” he said. Answering Caitlin’s question.
“I never did something like that before,” she said.
“Actually, you—” He frowned. His heart stopped beating its warsong and slowed to a funeral march. He stuffed it in his pocket. “Let’s go.”
He stepped out of the car, leaning into the step, frustrated as the jeans clung to him. His belt wasn’t doing any work holding his pants up. He pulled his hand away from his hair in disgust. He slammed shut his door.
Caitlin was slower getting out. Her good hand was still in its cast. Polychromatic names and drawings by all of the girls she and Richie had been fucking all but hid the white plaster. A few classmates had done so as well, but Oksana’s touch was there in pink, red, green, blue, yellow, and black. Caitlin closed her door and Richie clickered Nat’s car locked.
Burger King behind him, Flo watching, enraptured as she stood at the dumpster unseen, Richie and Caitlin walked into Alice’s diner.
“Richie! Yoo hoo!” His mom whistled out and waved from the corner. “Caity…” She lost some of her smile. “Um, you know Mary’s coming, right?”
Richie pulled out a chair for Caitlin and seated her before joining at her right hip. His dad nodded, imperceptibly. His mom smiled again.
“She’s not here already?” Richie asked. “I figured she’d be here first.”
“We got here just a moment ago,” Dick said. He stood half up and looked around the restaurant.
“Oh there’s no way she could’ve missed us after I called Richie over,” Sheryl sighed. Then she smiled. “Mary!”
Thankfully Richie’s mother didn’t Yoo Hoo! to the lawyer. Richie turned. He and Caitlin had taken seats with their back to the front wall. He saw Perla first. She looked cute in her little diner skirt and apron. He waved. She tickled her fingers back in the air at him. She then apologized profusely for overfilling the coffee cup she had been called over to replenish.
Mary took one look at Perla. She knew the girl. Harper had always had an enemies list and when Perla had appeared many of the previous names had finally evaporated. She kept her feelings to herself, but her mind on Harper.
Richie met Mary’s eyes and his stomach dropped. Mary presented cold and dangerous. She wasn’t a tall woman, but sitting down Richie felt she stretched up like an unconquerable giant. His hand went to his pocket, like Frodo reassuring himself that he still had the Ring. Caitlin smacked his fingers away.
Richie and Dick stood up as Mary approached. She smiled and walked to sit on the bench next to Sheryl.
“The waiter brought coffee but we haven’t ordered yet or anything,” Sheryl said.
“That’s fine,” Mary said. “You look well.”
“I’m frazzled. We have to get the house fumigated, make sure we kill every last rat, but, honestly,” she squeezed Dick’s fingers. “I have enjoyed the hotel stays. We haven’t traveled much without the kids since… Since college probably. And even then there were a half dozen friends around. We haven’t discussed it with Richie or Nat yet, but Dick and I are considering hitting up all of the places we wanted to go but didn’t over the next few years.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the pyramids,” Dick said. “Egypt and Aztec.”
“And I like the sun,” Sheryl said.
“I’m sorry,” Mary said. “I haven’t seen Harper in almost a week. I’m not capable of small talk.”
Richie heard the words come out like a guillotine blade down on his neck.
“Oh my god! A week!” Sheryl’s eyes went wide. She turned towards Richie. “I’ve been heartbroken since you’ve stopped bringing that girl around.” Her eyes flicked to Caitlin with no pretense of apology.
“I think we should talk about what happened,” Mary said. “I’ve heard from Lilith that Harper ran off with someone. And you knew it.”
“Um, yeah, that’s not perfectly accurate but Morwen…”
“Morwen?” Sheryl said. “That’s a strange name.”
“Maybe Morgan?” Richie said. “We only met the once, I think. Then Morgan said something about wanting Harper and… I didn’t see them leave actually, but I can guarantee they were together.”
“Morgan? Last name?”
“Not that I heard,” Richie said, after a pause to think.
“Morgan Lindy?” Caitlin said. “He was a couple years older than us. Fat guy. Freckles. Blond.”
“No, not Morg,” Richie said. “Besides, he’s out west right? Working the tar sands or something.”
“I don’t know, I never talked to him,” Caitlin said.
“What’s Morgan look like?” Mary asked.
“Dark hair. It was night, but I think, like purple eyes.”
“Purple eyes are like a storybook thing,” Dick said. “Probably blue.”
“Maybe,” Richie said. “Taller than Harper, but just a little. Skinny.”
“Age?”
“Twenties?” Richie said. “Maybe thirty?”
“An older man?”
“Older. Yes.”
He was sweating. He was almost shivering. What was he supposed to do? Tell the truth? The whole truth. A lie took energy, thought, preparedness. It was easier to say things that were true and just leave out the impossible details.
Time stopped.
I sold your daughter for magic beans.
I drugged your other daughter and fucked her in a pile with a bunch of other girls.
I fucking loved it.
The only reason it sucks at all is because Harper’s not here to share in it with me.
“Hey Richie? Did you see Caitlin’s tits today? Perky nipples are why god invented cold weather. It’s OK. Look!”
And I’m going to do it again tonight and it’s going to be legendary.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Perla’s hand on the back of his neck. He quickly put his hand back between his lap. He wasn’t sitting tall.
“More coffee,” Sheryl said. “We might get some food later.’
Mary’s eyes had locked on Richie when Perla’s hand had come down on the back of his neck. She stared with daggers.
“When was this? Where?”
“Outside Burger King. I think it was Thursday? Maybe Friday?” he said. Thursday shift, Friday quitting time.
“Have you tracked her phone?” Dick asked.
“Yes, she left it in Nat’s car,” Mary said. “Do you have it?”
“Oh, um, sure. I think.” Richie said. There’d be nothing on the phone. Unless Harper had a bunch of pictures of Morwen he didn’t know about.
“Do you have it here?” Mary asked, more forcefully.
“Right. Not on me,” he frowned and looked at Caitlin. “Did I give it to Lilith?”
“Not while I was around.”
“One sec,” he said and took out his own phone. He quickly texted Nat and Lilith. “Do you have Harper’s phone?”
“Glove box.” Nat replied. Richie shot out of the chair and zipped out of the restaurant. Lilith replied a second later. “It’s on Harper’s nightstand plugged in.” But Richie wouldn’t see that until he’d torn everything out of the glove box.
He was hyperventilating in the seat when he picked his phone back out of his pocket to text Nat for clarification. He saw Lilith’s reply. He sighed. He stepped out of the car and slammed the passenger door. He marched back into the restaurant.
“I got you a coffee,” Perla said as he stepped in. She pointed to the table.
“Lilith said it’s on Harper’s nightstand,” Richie said, slumping to his seat.
“Right,” Mary said. “Then why’d you go out to the car?”
“Nat texted and said it was in the glove box.”
“Nat doesn’t like saying ‘No.’” Sheryl said, condemnatorially.
“She must’ve given lessons to Lilith,” Mary said. “And Harper.”
“Missing girl, you got a name and a description, is it time to go to the police?” Sheryl asked.
“It is,” Mary said, sighing and stirring her cup of coffee. “She’s an adult. If they do find her, she’ll tell the cops to fuck off.”
“I figure a kid with a lawyer for a mother wouldn’t say word one to a cop,” Dick said.
“Yeah, but in my mind Harper will feel guilty she’s been going wild for over a week,” she said. “She’ll be flipped on, but she’s nineteen. An adult. She’ll get her dander up and fight and stay out for another three days before she calls home.”
“I didn’t think someone her age could go so long without her phone,” Sheryl said. She looked at Dick and frowned. “Actually, I don’t think someone our age can do it.”
“She’d been bitching about how shit her phone was for how long that I’d been dating her,” Richie said. “Maybe she used it as an excuse to get a new one.”
“But she hasn’t used her card and—”
“And she’s a teenager hanging off an older man,” Sheryl said. “She’s probably not paying for anything.”
“God, I only ever thought Lilith would run like that,” Mary said.
“I’m sorry I can’t help more,” Richie said. Mary’s eyes shot up to him on the word can’t. It was the first outright lie he had spoken. He could help more. He could tell everyone exactly where Harper had gone.
Not exactly.
Magic witches didn’t have exact addresses.
Probably.
But what if they did?
Sheryl reached out and squeezed her son’s hand. “Thanks for coming out tonight. I know you’ve got plans.”
“Plans?” Mary said. She looked over Caitlin’s dress with a newly discerning eye. Caitlin wanted to shrink up under the gaze. She felt like she had gone from ephemeral and out of focus to under a prison yard spotlight.
“They’re going to that concert for that girl the kids are always playing,” Dick said. “The pretty Chinese one.”
Sheryl looked at Dick.
“What?”
“I get you suffered through the songs, but how do you know Gabrielle Xu’s pretty?”
“Because you felt like you were getting too old and out of place that you looked her up on your tablet in bed,” Dick said.
“Gabrielle Xu’s Harper’s favorite,” Mary said. “I gotta go! There’s no way she can miss this!”
But she caught Richie’s eyes as she excitedly got up from her seat.
“You don’t think she’s going to be there?” Mary frowned. “Or you know she won’t be.”
“Oh, he’s feeling guilty,” Caitlin almost wished she could let her fade back out and hide, but Richie looked pale and she wouldn’t leave him to the wolves. “He got our backstage passes as a gift for Harper. He was going to surprise her and she ditched him for Morgan.”
“Morwen,” Richie said. “It’s not Morgan. It is Morwen.”
“Hmm…”
“Weird name,” Sheryl said.
“It’s a woman’s name,” Mary said.
“Is it? It sounds… I guess maybe old English or Irish or Welsh or something. Celtic?” Dick said.
“British?” Richie tried to add helpfully.
“You know her?” Sheryl asked, ignoring her husband and son.
“No,” Mary said. “I’ve never met anyone by that name. I just wanted to see your son squirm or argue back by saying something ridiculous. Morwen is a woman. You lied to me.”
“Oh my god!” Caitlin said. She dug out her phone. “A little taller than Harper. Dark hair. Purple eyes. Twenty-something?”
“I didn’t lie,” Richie said.
“The truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.”
“He’s not under oath, Mary,” Sheryl said, obeying the mama bear’s urge to protect her son. Yet, she was staring angrily at her son as she did so.
“She left you for a woman,” Dick said. “That… Is that worse or better?”
“Harper’s gone, you can have your silly boy thoughts later,” Sheryl said, a bit snappishly at Dick.
“Here!” Caitlin said. She had a picture up on her phone. Lilith was drinking heavily being held up by three different guys being very uncareful with the parts of her they held up. Caitlin pinched the screen and opened her fingers to zoom out behind a muscly ginger boy’s shoulder.
Morwen had been walking through the living room towards the dining room.
“That leads to the back step, that’s where Harper was the night. Is that Morwen?”
Richie stared at it.
There she was. The pretty witch who had offered an exchange, Harper for a harem of women trapped by the magic of six beans.
Five down.
Zita.
Caitlin.
Oksana.
Perla.
Lilith.
One to go.
Gabrielle.
And chaos on top of it.
Nat and Flo.
Rats everywhere.
Shit! He had a thought and image in his mind. The blue bean mixed into Caitlin’s morning smoothie. Half drank, still permeated with the corruption of the magic. She had drunk some of it. Not all.
Into the trash.
Rats in the trash.
Rats in his house. Over at Perla’s. Running to the car in the parking lot. Across town at Caitlin’s.
“Richie!”
He blinked. “Sorry, I went elsewhere. That is Morwen.”
“Her eyes literally are purple,” Dick said, frowning.
“Colored contacts,” Sheryl said. “I had a goth phase when I was a little younger than that.”
Caitlin looked up and saw Mary frowning. “I’ll send you the picture.”
“Thank you, Caitlin,” Mary said, tilting her head and looking over Richie. Richie sweated and frowned. His fingers went to his pocket once again.
It didn’t have to be the whole bean. There’d be enough for Gabrielle.
One left and he came to the conclusion.
Mary was worried about Harper. Richie was worried about Harper. But what was there that he could do for Harper? Nothing. What could Mary do? Nothing.
He looked at Caitlin.
What could he do for Mary?
She was… Well, she looked good for her age… But… She looked her age.
But it was his fault.
Shouldn’t he do something? Anything?
Caitlin picked his hand up and moved it from his pocket. She drummed her nails on the back of his hand. She did not want to be facing her boyfriend’s… Her man’s parents with a bunch of cocaine in plain sight.
Did he always fidget this much?
“I gotta go to the washroom!” He pulled his hand from Caitlin’s and got out of his chair at speed. Mary frowned. Her phone buzzed. She looked down.
‘Thank you, Caitlin,” she said, and looked up to see Richie bolting around the counter to the washrooms at the end of the dining area.
He tapped Perla’s elbow on his bolt across the tiles. She was pouring coffee for another guest. The other waiter was heading over to his table. He put his back against the wall next to the kitchen door, across from the ladies room. He looked at his phone. So much time left.
“Hey Richie,” Perla said. “You OK? You look incredible.”
“Really?” He touched his stiff hair again. “It feels like too much.”
“Yes,” she answered. Her eyes glittering as they adored him. He nodded. He pulled out the baggie again.
“Is that your sister’s?” she asked.
“No, I got it…” he had been trying not to bring up that answer for the whole conversation. He stuffed it down now. He didn’t want it getting loose. He stared at it.
This was one sixth of Harper.
Taking care of Harper’s family. Lilith. Mary. Was that his responsibility?
“Does Mary need another cup of coffee?”
“Probably,” Perla said. “She’s been drinking it down to keep from boring laser holes into your brain with her eyes.”
He frowned.
Would he still have enough for Gabrielle?
How much did he need?
There was no way to know how much had been in Caitlin’s smoothie all those days ago.
Dammit.
He smiled, running his finger tip through the mouth of the tiny ziploc baggie.
“What are you thinking about?”
“What I really want,” he said. He leaned in and kissed her. “Go, you have coffee to deliver.”
She smiled and he crossed the hall and walked down to the washroom. He didn’t piss. He stared hard into the mirror. Washed his hands and his face three times.
He took deep breaths until he settled the shaking of his shoulders.
Harper was worth the best.
He smiled. He could finish things tonight. He grinned at himself. Gabrielle Xu was pure fucking sex in the Hate Me Like You Love Me Like You Hate Me video. The first time he had ever seen it, Harper had begged him to watch and sucked him off the whole way through.
He hadn’t heard word one, just remembered the outfits and the tits. And then he dragged Harper to bed while youtube cycled through cheesy pop songs. That had been an amazing wasted day.
Not as frenetic and energetic as things had been getting with his new girls.
Better.
He smirked to himself.
It was only worth it if he went all the way.
He assured the baggie was properly closed and he shook it until the pulverized bean settled back down in the bottom of the baggie. Triple checking the seal, he shoved it back in his front pocket on top of his wallet. He stepped outside.
Mary was waiting for him. She frowned.
“Do you know where she is?” she asked, holding a to-go cup for her coffee. Her fingers looked white, her face looked older. Her shoulders looked square.
“I don’t,” he said. “I have no idea where they would’ve gone to.”
“Did Morwen have a car?”
“Not one I saw,” I said.
“Did she call a cab? A Lyft or something?”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“Is there anything else I need to know?” she asked.
“I—”
Her phone went off. She grabbed it and pulled it out. She frowned. Her face hardened, strengthened. Her voice was stronger when she thumbed the button and put it to her ear.
“Don? Did something happen with Frankie?”
“He escaped,” Don answered, sounding frantic. “Yelled something about Richie when he bowled over the nurse on duty.”
Mary stared at Richie.
“I’m on my way to the police station,” she said. “Grand Lake Road. I’ll see you there.”
“Is everything OK?” Richie asked, having only heard Mary’s side of the conversation.
“Nothing’s OK,” she said. “Enjoy your concert… If you see Harper there… Text me?”
“I promise,” he said.
She slumped her shoulders and put her coffee to her lips. Richie looked away. He shook his head and walked to the table. Mary left through the front doors as he passed them. He sat down next to Caitlin.
“Are you alright, Richie?” Sheryl asked, reaching across. Her father sipped his fresh cup. “I ordered your favorite.”
The waiter came up and put down a club sandwich in front of Caitlin and chicken strips in front of Richie.
“I’ll manage,” Richie said. “I got something I can do tonight. I think doing something will make me feel better.”
“That’s what it means to be a man,” Dick said, putting down his coffee. He looked up as his and Sheryl’s plates arrived. “Send the girl over with the urn?”
The waiter brightly said it’d be just a moment and laid out a chowder and turkey sandwich in front of Dick. Perla came over with the urn and filled the cup.
* * *