Prelude

 

 

          Franklin Rogers lay next to the naked coed.  Her dead eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.  Franklin sat up on the edge of the motel bed and looked at his latest victim – his second since he started freshman classes at Boston College last fall.  His seventh victim since his first kill when he was sixteen.  That first kill gave meaning to a burning desire he had for years, a desire he hadn’t understood.  It showed him how to get relief from the persistent urge.
          He leaned over, sucked a nipple into his mouth, pulled his head back, and let it slip from his tight lips.  Yes, he loved the kill, but he also loved a woman’s body and all of the stimulation he felt when near one.  He never dated in high school.  Being the short, thin, nerdy, little brother of a Deputy Sheriff ostracized him.  Now, he took pleasure in a woman’s body before killing her.  He had no problem raping an unwilling participant.
          “You look so much like Susan,” Franklin said.  He kissed her on the lips, letting his tongue explore her gaped open mouth.  “You taste like her.  Darling, don’t worry.  I know you are not her, just wishful thinking on my part,” Franklin said as he gently stroked her hair.
          He closed her eyelids with two fingers.  Sighed as he stood up.
          “Unfortunately, like you, she is dead.  I had to kill the woman I wanted to marry and have a family with because she would not leave that fucking Konnor Williams for me,” Franklin said as he got dressed.  “It’s not like they were married or even engaged.  Would it have killed her to leave him for me?  I don’t think so but it sure as hell killed her to not leave him for me.”
          He walked into the bathroom.  He wrapped the used condom in toilet paper then flushed the toilet.  He waited for the tank to refill then flushed again.  Franklin grabbed a hand towel from the towel rack in the bathroom.  On his way out of the room, he carefully wiped his fingerprints off everything he may have touched.
          Franklin walked around the back of the motel where he had parked his car.  The small strip motel on the edge of a small town sat with nothing but an empty lot behind it.  He stopped for a moment to admire his 1973 Buick Century.  He got it as a High School Graduation present from his parents last summer.  They had traded in his 1968 Buick Skylark for the new Buick.  He got into his car.  He started the engine.  He looked through his windshield at the back of the seedy motel.  He had convinced the drunk coed to get a room in her name so they could celebrate the end of their Freshman year.  He gave her cash to pay for the room.  He told her to wait for him while he scored some weed from a friend.  He already had the weed, he just didn’t want to be the one who checked them into the room.  He needed to remain anonymous and unseen.
          Franklin looked at his reflection in the rearview mirror.  The dim light from the dashboard played tricks with shadows and light.  He grinned at his reflection.
          “There’s that monster that resides in me.  Konnor, I will be back in your neck of the woods in a couple days,” Franklin said to his mirror image.  “Then, the fun will begin for me all over again.  I plan to pick up where I left off last summer, killing the people you care about.  You should never have bullied me like you did in junior high.  The shame and embarrassment I endured from you was uncalled for.”
          Franklin got lost in that bad junior high memory…

​

*           *           *           *           *

​

          Franklin’s face grew red with shame.  He fought back tears.
          “Give those back, Konnor.  You have no idea what it is like to be forced to wear them,” Franklin said.
          Konnor grinned real big, then tossed the underwear at Franklin.  Franklin ducked a little too late.  His underwear hit him in the face.  The shame and guilt the stale urine smell invoked immediately washed over him.  He jerked them off his face and threw them into his locker.  His chest tightened.  He had trouble breathing.  He gulped in huge amounts of air trying to fill his lungs with fresh air.  Franklin fought against a panic attack.  His reaction had been fueled by the memory of beatings with the buckle end of his dad’s belt.
          Franklin’s dad, frustrated that he had not been able to get Franklin to stop wetting the bed at night, started making him wear his urine soaked underwear to school.  He hoped that embarrassment would do what beatings with a belt didn’t do.

​

*           *           *           *           *

​

          Franklin’s focus in his rearview mirror came back.  He spoke to the mirror again.
          “Thanks to you, Konnor, my need to kill has been given a purpose.  It certainly didn’t help our relationship when you pushed me down last summer and called me a piss ant in front of Susan.”
          Franklin looked in the backseat at his two suitcases.  He rolled his window down and smelled the early morning air.  In the late May air, the sweet aroma of Honeysuckle drifted through the open window.  Franklin took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it out slowly.  He was invigorated and ready for the two day drive.  He drove away from the motel and headed to I-90.  He looked back up at the mirror.
          “Ready or not, Konnor, here I come.”

​

Dead Relationships

 

 

 

          Franklin drove into his hometown of Kingfisher, Oklahoma late Sunday night.  Both of the small town’s traffic lights, one at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway Avenue, the other at Main Street and Robberts Avenue, blinked yellow for traffic going north or south on Main Street which was US Highway 81.  Traffic lights flashed red for both cross streets.  After midnight, they stopped their timed traffic directing cycles.  The two day drive would have seemed longer if he hadn’t been busy thinking about the things he could do to fuck with Konnor Williams.  Friday, his last day of class, he had called his big brother to see if he would be interested in meeting him at the Patio Cafe Monday morning for breakfast.  They had agreed to meet at eight.
          Franklin used his key to slip into his parents’ house while they slept.  They were expecting him.  He had told them not to wait up because it would be late before he got to town.  He carried his suitcase to his bedroom, then laid down on top of his bed.  Sleep did not take long to take over what was left of his night.

          Franklin sat in a booth in the Patio Cafe across from his brother, Kingfisher County Deputy Sheriff Bernie Rogers.  Franklin, busy thinking about who his next kill might be and how it might fuck with Konnor Williams, barely heard Bernie when he spoke.
          “How was your first year at Boston College?” Bernie asked.
          “What?  I’m sorry?”
          “I asked how it went this past year?”
          “It went well.  Classes were not too difficult,” Franklin said.  He looked out the window towards Main Street and the Kingfisher County Courthouse.  Next to it he could see the north edge of the county jail.  A huge church built around the turn of the century obscured the rest of courthouse.  The Patio Cafe sat on the northwest corner of Broadway Avenue (State Highway 33) and North Seventh Street, a block west of Main Street.
          “How have things been going around here?  Have you found out who killed those people last summer?” Franklin asked. “Has anyone else been murdered?”
          “No.  No more killings.  And no, we haven’t figured out who did the killin’s.  Sheriff Johnson thinks whoever it was done moved on since no one else has been kilt.”
          Franklin lost interest in what Bernie was saying when Konnor Williams and Sherri Gregston walked through the front door of the Patio Cafe.  They stood shoulder to shoulder looking for a place to sit.
          I wonder if they are dating.  If so, it did not take long for Konnor to get over Susan, Franklin thought as he watched Konnor and Sherri walk in his direction.  She looks like she will make a suitable victim.  And that body of hers.  She is smokin’ hot.  I think I will fuck her before killing her.  Hell, I might just take her away from Konnor and wait to kill her.  Have her as my own for a while first.
          Franklin made momentary eye contact with Konnor when he and Sherri walked up to the booth next to his.  They took a seat together with their backs to Franklin’s booth.  This put them with their backs to Franklin.
          Franklin was a little steamed when Konnor showed no recognition when their eyes met.
          How could that asshole not remember me?  Especially after last summer when I tried to take his girlfriend away from him that night at the river party, Franklin thought.  How could he not remember me after all the shit he has put me through?  That asshole remembers me.  He just chooses to disrespect me by ignoring me.  I will show that asshole.  He will suffer before this summer break is over.
          Franklin tuned Bernie out as he tried to overhear what Konnor and Sherri were discussing.  They had already placed their food orders when Konnor started to talk.  His voice sounded pleading.
          “Come on Sherri, skip work on Friday and help me celebrate my birthday.  Let’s go swimming at the cliff.  It could be fun,” Konnor said.
          “I would, but what am I going to tell Mae?  I am the only barmaid Mae and Jim have when the Town House opens each day, including Friday,” Sherri said.  She started working at the Town House beer joint a couple months before school let out for the summer.  Mae and Jim Lambert, owners of the Town House, were good bosses.  And bonus, the tips were great.
          She needed the job because her mom moved to Enid to work at one of the large grain elevators.  She would be running the scales and keeping track of grain going in and out of the silos.  Besides the fact that she and her mom did not get along, Sherri did not want to move that close to her graduation from Kingfisher High School.  Now, she lives alone in the house where she grew up.
          “Tell them you have a doctor’s appointment,” Konnor said.
          “Okay, since it is your birthday,” Sherri said.
          “Earth to Franklin,” Bernie said. “Are you listening to me?”
          “Sorry, I guess I am a little tired from the long drive.  Plus, my brain may be a little fried from a year of college classes,” Franklin said.  He had been distracted by the thought of showing up at the cliff lake and disrupting Konnor’s birthday swim.  “What were you saying?”
          “Did you have fun at Boston College?” Bernie asked.
          “It was fun.  A lot of work but fun.”
          “Did you meet any girls?” Bernie asked.
“I did meet some girls in the course of the year.  I dated a couple of them.  Unfortunately, those relationships died.”