Unknown Remains by Peter Leonard

Author:Peter Leonard
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781619028050
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2016-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Jack was getting dressed, fitting cufflinks through holes in the cuffs, buttoning the shirt and tying the bow tie, finally doing a passable job on the fourth attempt. He sipped a Stoli and tonic, trying to settle his nerves. He had been jittery all day, which somehow seemed fitting, since he was getting married in an hour. He wasn’t worried that he’d made the wrong choice in a wife. He had not been attracted to another girl since he’d met Diane two years earlier. What might’ve thrown him off a little, he was going into uncharted territory. Jack had never lived with a woman. Sure, they had spent part of every week together, but he could go back to his place and she to hers. After today, there was nowhere to go.

He had met Diane Jackson at Joe Sculley’s wedding. Ilene, the girl Joe was marrying, and Diane were friends. Even before the wedding, Sculley had bugged Jack about asking her out. “I’m telling you she’s something. Trust me, will you? You’re going to thank me.”

And then he saw Diane in the church before Joe and Ilene’s ceremony, and he felt something in his gut. Jack and Diane were paired during the wedding, walked down the aisle together, sat next to each other at dinner. Jack couldn’t believe he had put her off for so long, although it was more about not trusting Sculley’s taste in women.

On their first date, Jack picked Diane up at her apartment and took her to a bar. They had drinks and dinner, talked about books and movies. Jack suggested seeing Wall Street, a midnight show at a multiplex not far from where they were. On the way to the theater, he stopped and bought a bottle of cabernet, a couple plastic cups, and a corkscrew. They sat in the last row so no one could see them drinking. They finished the bottle, and Diane started nodding off. That was the last thing Jack remembered. He woke up first. The screen was black, the lights were on, the theater was empty. He looked at his watch and woke Diane. She looked around and said, “Where is everybody?”

“Gone. It’s four in the morning.”

“What? Why didn’t someone wake us up?”

“Good question.” They got up and went in the lobby. The lights were on but no one was there. “Let’s get out of here.” The doors they had entered four hours earlier were now chained from the inside. He looked out at the dark empty parking lot and saw his car. Now what?

Diane said, “Should we call the police?”

“I left my phone in the car.”

“We’ll use the pay phone. Do you have any change?”

Jack dug his hands in his pockets and shook his head. He turned, scanning the lobby, walked over to a furniture grouping, and picked up a leather chair with a metal frame that weighed as much as a bag of cement. He dragged it to the doors.

“What’re you going to do?”

He picked up the chair and swung it into a floor-to-ceiling window flanking one of the double doors.

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