Tko's Dik Dot Friend

VII. The Book

I took the book out of the plastic bag and held it as I walked down the three steps leading to the bookstore's door. I stopped on the third and lowest step and just turned page after page of the book, looking for any mention of my name, when suddenly a familiar voice caused me to jump up.

"TKO?" I felt my heart jump out of my chest as I turned to my right to see Caleb staring directly at me, holding his book in my hand.

"Caleb? Hi." I said, pretending to be surprised when it was painfully apparent that the look on my face was more of terror.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were in school," He said, eyebrows squinted.

"Yes, but we are on Christmas break, so I came to pick up the rest of my stuff in st" The words got lost in the depths of my throat as I suddenly felt the strong nudge in the pit of my tummy to say less.

"I.. umm. I came looking for the pet shop and found this bookstore instead. Imagine my shock." I chuckled, but there was no laughter on his face as his eyes kept going from me to his book.

"Yeah, The pet shop closed down. Mrs. Wong found out that her husband, Mr. Wong, was having a three-year affair with a younger woman and was gambling away most of their savings in Vegas when he went on his supposed business trip. She was so devastated that she closed everything, filed for a divorce, took the rest of the money, and moved back to China." He said, his voice lacking bravado as usual. My eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

"What?! That's terrible! Poor Mrs. Wong." I said as I tried to remember the lovely lady I worked for two summers ago.

"She'll be alright. Her sons are all grown up now, their own families. She'll be going back and forth from China to the U.S. anyway. Probably works out better for her." Nothing had changed about the way he talked or carried himself. He had become even more indifferent, and his new haircut added an extra layer of creepiness that camouflaged by his better-looking clothes. He was a little more put together and seemed to have put on some muscle weight.

"How do you know so much about this? My eyes judged him like a jury panel.

"I still speak to one of her sons." I nodded and stood there, trying to find a way to escape his gaze and presence.

"So you bought a copy of my book," He said excitedly, pointing at my hand. I looked down, trying to appear surprised.

"Yeah," I said, stepping away from the steps and him and moving towards my car before turning around to face him again.

"Congratulations," I said with a nod.

"I hope you don't mind, but I shared a little bit about our little incident if you know what I mean." He said with a casual wink as he climbed up two steps towards the front door of the bookstore. I froze up as I stared into his face.

"Excuse me," Came the deep voice of a young guy who needed to get up to the bookstore. Caleb moved to the other side of the step to give him room to get in. I figured this was Allie's boyfriend. The hunch was soon confirmed by the excitement on her face as I could see her through the glass windows. She came down from the counter to hug him as she pointed toward Caleb's direction. I could tell she was filling him in on who he was. Her boyfriend's face lit up in boyish excitement as he realized who he had just passed on the way to the store.

"You used my name?" I asked, returning my gaze to Caleb.

"Yes. Your name was the easiest and my favorite name out of the entire bunch." He said with a smirk. Part of me wanted to jump on top of him and beat him down with his putrid book until his average-sized dick ceased to function, but the other part of me wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. Somewhere deep in my core. I knew he had something to do with the murders of the five young women. I began walking back towards my car in slow motion. "I have to go now," I said.