Page 83 of Caution Tape

She taps her fingertips on the hand rest. “Can you really leave her?”

“Yes.”

“Ooh, you say it so easily. Yet every step of the way she’s dragged you in closer.” Her voice drops in pitch. It’s my voice, my words, drifting out of her dead mouth. “Cora, you’re the only thing that scares me.”

I glance at her. One of her eyes is stuck; one is aimed at me, the other drooping and gazing at the floor. She looks like a broken doll. “Lying to Cora is as easy as lying to you. Fucking her is just a bit better, that’s all. She has a better ass.”

Her bloody, seasick grin widens. “Fucking her is one thing. Murdering your ex-girlfriend together? That looks like loyalty to me.”

“Whatever it looks like, it’ll be over soon.”

“Maybe.” Natalie’s voice changes. It’s Cora’s now. Huskier, less nasally. Better. “Or maybe you’ll have a change of heart at the last moment.”

“Yeah, that’s me. I’m real big on change of heart.”

I hit a deep pothole on purpose. Natalie slips sideways and bounces her head on the passenger window. She giggles. “Nolan and Cora sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

Her voice is digging into my brain. I can feel reality tremble. I want to dive into the rolling blackness and let it feast, but I can’t.

I need to break the hallucination; I need to get control.

“Natalie, I think you look better now that you’re dead.”

The hallucination freezes. Like a video trying to buffer. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, baby. Why don’t you open up that mouth and put my dick in it?”

“I know what you’re doing,” she mumbles.

“How about I fuck that open slit in your throat? Hmmm? Or I could plunge my knife into your stomach right now. It’s never too late. Let me get in those guts, baby.”

The hallucination bursts out laughing. I assume it’s because I am laughing.

I wipe tears from my eyes and laugh harder, and when I look over again Natalie is gone.

When I stick her fucking ugly body in a barrel, she’s quiet. She’s quiet when I wipe down my knives and kill tools. She’s quiet when I plant Cora’s hair around the shipping container.

I enjoy the cold silence.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Nolan

Somehow, this is the most difficult part. Jay sits next to me at the bar, our faces awash in the glow of a half-dozen flat screens as basketball players in bright jerseys run up and down the court.

To my horror, I realize I’ve gotten used to Cora. For the last few days, outside of our victims, she’s been the one I’ve been talking to the most. I’ve grown to appreciate the way we can talk openly about the blood and the rage.

I’m having trouble putting on the human mask.

“Where you been, man? What’s been going on?” Jay asks. “I honestly can’t believe we’re hanging out. I didn’t think you liked me that much.”

“I’m just busy a lot. I’ve been seeing this girl. She’s a handful. Honestly, I needed a break.”

“Oh, yeah? That Natalie girl?”

I’m very pleased that he remembers Natalie. I wonder if I’m the closest thing he has to a friend.

He’ll be such a good witness.

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