Digging, working fast. Should have been there before now, getting this ready. Got held up at home, having fun instead of working. Drove straight there, a clearing in the trees, west of the city. The shovel out of the boot of the Subaru and he started working. A little too fast, making more mess than he should, but he needed to have this ready before they arrived.
Dig it deep, that’s what they’d said. Didn’t need to be six feet, didn’t need to be wide, just needed to be properly deep. They could throw the body in sideways, curl it into a ball and throw it in, didn’t matter. This wasn’t going to be a ceremony. No mourners for this poor sod. They wanted a grave, and BB was junior enough to dig it for them.
Digging a grave for a man he didn't know, who was being killed for reasons BB would never be told. Didn’t bother him. Didn’t think about it at all. Someone would die and it wasn’t him, wasn’t anyone he knew. No reason for him to care at all. He dug at the same speed, fast, until he was convinced he had enough of a grave for a body to call home. Then he got out and he waited.
Every ten minutes or so he would take a look at his watch, see how long he had been waiting. Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty minutes. Needn’t have hurried after all. They were more than an hour late now and he was still sitting against the bonnet of the Subaru, the shovel planted in the ground next to the grave ten feet away.
He was always a patient man, when it came to his work. They had said they would be there with the body so they would be there with the body. Other people might have started to get worried. Might have panicked and thought the worst. Not BB. He didn’t think that something had gone wrong with the kill and that maybe the next people to turn up at the grave would be the police. This job was being organised by Nate Colgan, there was no way it would be botched. And he didn’t think that maybe this was a setup, get him to dig his own grave before they put him in it. He hadn’t done anything to earn that. They were just late.
He didn’t think about Heather either, not while he was still at the grave. Complete separation. She was home and this was work. Two different lives. She knew what he did, although they were too smart to ever go into details. He stood in the woods and he thought about nothing at all. Just looked into the gloom, watched the branches of the trees weave about in the wind. It was mindless.
The van arrived about an hour and a half late. BB straightened up, watched Nate Colgan get out of the front. Nate nodded to him.
“BB, come over and help with this,” Nate said to him. That deep, rumbling voice. Nate was the senior muscle these days, you did what he said. Did what he said before he was senior too.
There were two suitcases in the back of the van. Nate grabbed one by the handle and pulled it out. Heavy, the big man straining. BB reached in and grabbed the other one. Heavy as well. Human body heavy. There was a handle and little wheels at one end, so that made it easier to pull it across. Looked like there was human hair stuck in the zip. Wouldn’t ask who it is or what they had done to get here. Didn’t care. Across to the grave and they throw the cases in. They hit the ground hard. Nate didn’t say anything about the grave, which was as good as a compliment. If there was anything wrong with it, Nate would have had a quiet grumble.
They filled in the grave quickly, shovelling the dirt on top of the cases. Quiet grunts of effort as they shovelled it and patted the dirt down flat. Tried to cover the site with leaves. Nate started talking quietly.
“Nobody saw you coming?”
“Nobody.” Say it like you’ve checked to make sure. Never give an answer that’s assumed to be correct. Know it.
Nate just nodded, because Nate Colgan did not partake in the bad habit of compliments. They did their jobs. They got paid for it. No pats on the back or group hugs. They walked back across to the van. Nate put BB’s shovel in the back with his own. He would handle disposal. He nodded to BB, got into the van and left.
That left BB hanging around in the trees for a while. Give the senior man a head start. Don’t have the Subaru and the van emerging from the dirt road one after the other. Someone might notice that. So he leaned against the car and looked at the trees some more. Mid-afternoon. Strange time to do a burial. No dwelling on that. Waited fifteen minutes and got into the car.
It was good to be out of the trees and back on the road. BB drove fast but not too fast, getting into the city. He always found it relaxing to just drive. Sometimes he would go out and just drive around with nowhere to go, just for then kick of it.
BB started to feel good as he drove, pleased that he would have a twenty minute drive home. Would wash the car; maybe take it for a polish. The roads clear enough to keep moving, another hour before it slowed to a crawl. He would get home in a good mood, and Heather would be there waiting for him. He didn’t think about her when he was working, but he wasn't working now. He thought about her and his mood got better and better.
YOU ARE READING
BB & Heather
Short Story"They had met a few times before. Parties, dancing in the same circles, that sort of thing. It was obvious they liked each other. Dancing close, a few drunken, slurpy kisses but never anything further than that. They were young and life was fast. So...
