Hitman's Creed - 37

 

"And that's how I ended up getting shot," Glenn told the others late that afternoon.

He’d eaten the light meal Miriam prepared, put on the cutoff shorts she had Joey dig out of his dresser, slept some more, and awakened to find Joey sitting beside him again. This time it was Joey who helped him sit up and take his pills. Glenn felt well enough that he'd refused to lie back down again. With Joey's help he moved to the corner of the sofa and leaned back with one of the blankets covering him, muttering as he did, "I need to get more than these shorts on sometime."

"You need a shower sometime too," Joey replied as he wrinkled his nose, although he liked seeing Glenn like that, in just shorts and the blanket that was now down around his waist. That earned him a lifted middle finger and a chuckle from Glenn.

Joey's mother and Mary appeared a few minutes later, the former wanting to know all the details now that Glenn was feeling somewhat better.

"I was on such an adrenaline rush at that point I was able to get Fairburn's body into a corner of the barn where there was a large pile of rotten hay. That's where he is, at least for now. Before I got him under it I stripped him of any ID as well as his shirt and belt because by then I knew I was bleeding too much. I fixed up a compression bandage of sorts then made my way from the barn back to my car."

"I'm amazed you made it that far," Joey's mother commented.

"It wasn't easy but I really had no choice. The drive from there to here was, shall we say, interesting. I had to fight to keep from passing out and I was damned glad the car is an automatic not stick as I could only use my left leg. I'd just turned onto the lane to here when I really did pass out for a few minutes." He shook his head. "The car's front bumper is resting against a tree trunk, or in it, I didn't really check. I'm glad I was wearing my seat belt and going slow. Anyway, I came to, crawled out of the car and made it the rest of the way back here. The stair railing helped me get onto the porch and I staggered to the door. The rest you know."

"At least you made it back," Joey said quietly. He shrugged a shoulder when Glenn looked at him. "I knew you would, of course."

Glenn chuckled. "Uh huh, then why did you act like you'd seen a ghost when I got here?"

"I did not!" Joey protested. "I was just… you looked like death warmed over as mom says. So anyway, umm, what now? What happens when someone finds the body?"

"With luck that won't happen until he's unrecognizable."

"But if he is? They, the police will figure out who he is and that someone shot him and when that happens you know they'll come to see us." He glanced at his mother. "If they do, I'm going to take the blame."

"Why can't Glenn?" Mary asked, puzzled. "I mean, well, wasn't it self-defense?"

"He can't, that's all there is to it," Joey said adamantly without looking at Glenn. "I can claim it was, and that I was afraid because… because I'd followed him when I saw him in town. I was going to find out where he was staying and, well, we ended up at that farm and he attacked me. Yeah, that would work."

"Joey," Glenn said firmly before anyone else could talk, "that is not going to happen. I'm not going to see you ruin your life and your dreams."

"It's my choice," Joey replied just as firmly.

"No, it's mine." Glenn put a hand on Joey's arm. "Actually, once I'm up and mobile again I'll find somewhere better to dispose of the body. That was just a stopgap measure after all, now that I think about it."

Joey opened his mouth to protest that going back there wasn't safe, and then closed it again when Glenn shook his head. "All right," he said instead, "I'll go with you."

"Damn it, what am I going to do with you?" Glenn growled. "That was a rhetorical question by the way so don't answer."