BalckeP1213

Peter Balcke Short Story Riddle 3

__The Happy Couple__

The reception had been going on for quite some time now, and the groom was

getting quite tipsy. The groom, Lucas Winser, had been a member of the Los Angeles

Police Department for 33 years until retiring last fall at age 52. He lost his wife, Alice

Winser, in a car accident three years ago. Lucas was able to keep going, however, and

managed to find a lovely spouse, Mary Greene; now Mary Winser, a retired florist. The

couple moved to New Orleans after Lucas quit the force. Mary grew up near the French

Quarter and wanted to be close to her parents. Now, on their wedding day, they vowed to

love each other in sickness and in health, forever and always.

Lucas surprisingly was the life of the party, dancing his way over to all the guests

and smiling through the entire night. Mary was right there along with him, and everyone

was so happy to see the couple finally get officially united. Lucas continued to dance and

dance until the clock struck 11:30, and he dropped his drink and it shattered on the floor.

Lucas woke up in a hospital bed with Mary asleep in the chair next to him.

“Lucas? Are you awake?” she asked.

“Yeah. Why are we in a hospital?” he said as he looked around the bland white

room.

“We were just dancing and having a good time,” Lucas said as he sat up to let his

legs dangle off the side of the bed.

“Yes and then you started going off about Alice. On our wedding night.”

“Alice? Stop talking crazy. Let’s get out of here.” And at that, Lucas stood up, but

flopped immediately back onto the bed, wincing at a pain coming from the bottom of his

foot.

“Just lay down. You stepped on the glass you shattered. And then as you started

ranting about Alice!” she said getting more and more intense about the whole thing. “I’m

sorry; just try to relax.”

Lucas fell back asleep while Mary left to go talk to the doctor. A few hours later,

Lucas woke up and Mary was gone. The doctor came and wrapped up Lucas’ foot and

ran some tests.

“The tests will not be back for another 48 hours, so we will need to stay in town

for two days until we call you, ok?” the doctor asked as if Lucas was a four-year-old.

“Will do,” Lucas replied tersely.

“Now it will hurt to walk on that foot, but hopefully it will get better in about a

week and we can go ahead and take the stitches out.”

“Let’s hope.” A silence as the two stared into each other’s eyes not knowing what

to say next.

“Ok, well I guess you are free to go.”

The nurse came in and got Lucas out of his bed. He got changed and limped out

the front of the hospital and breathed in the fresh air before catching a bus to his friend

Carl’s house.

“Hey! How are you feeling? Got a little too much to drink the other night, huh?”

Carl laughed at his bad joke as he does incessantly.

“Nope. I’m not crazy. I did not see Alice and I did not collapse because of it,”

Lucas replied seriously.

“Oh ok. Well anything you need I got. Mary called and said you might drop by

and call her so I’ll go ahead and let her know.”

Carl took out his phone, but Lucas quickly snatched it out of his hand and threw it

onto the wooden porch where it shattered into a thousand pieces.

“Don’t call.”

Lucas shoved past Carl and headed straight for his old desktop that looked like it

was from the 1970’s. Carl ran over to Lucas.

“Lucas!” Lucas paid him no mind whatsoever.

“Lucas. What are you doing? What is wrong with you? Get out!”

“I was drugged.”

“Very funny Lucas. You obviously just had a little crazy moment and fainted

from too much to drink. Your cop days are over and not everything has to be such an

important life or death situation.”

Lucas stared at the computer screen reading an article. The headline read, “Young

College Student poisoned by his disturbed roommate.”

“Look at this.” Lucas said while gesturing to the screen.

“So what?”

Lucas began to read the article. “College student Andy Luresh died three days

after being poisoned by his roommate at Loyola University. The roommate, Mark Tradus,

gave him a drink one night at a party. A few minutes later Luresh was spouting out old

memories from his childhood until he collapsed on the floor. The doctors found out a day

later he had been poisoned, but the poison had spread throughout his bloodstream and

there was no way he could survive. Blah blah blah. Sound familiar?” Lucas turned around

and looked at Carl.

“Ok so you have a good argument, but you don’t have enough evidence. It could

just be a coincidence.”

Lucas stopped. He got up and paced the room.

“Lucas, talk to me,” Carl said sensing Lucas’ stress.

“If this is true, I’m dying and there is no cure.”

Lucas snuck back into his house that night, afraid Mary would wake up. He went

into his bedroom, but Mary was gone. This was his chance. He searched her drawers

and didn’t find anything. He went to her dresser and did not see anything suspicious. He

glanced up at the mirror before turning away to check the bathroom. Lucas turned back

to the mirror and saw a corner of a slip of paper. He grabbed it and it had a safe number

on it. Now, to find the safe. As he searched the room, thoughts kept running through his

head. This is his wife. Why did she try to kill him? How did she get the poison and the

safe? Where was she? He had no luck with the safe, so he checked the garage. His car

was gone. Mary must have taken it. He stopped not knowing what to do next. Then, he

saw it. Behind the shelves and tools and golf clubs, there was a seam in the wall. He ran

over to check it out. He took out that piece of the wall and found the safe. He entered the

number he discovered earlier and opened the safe; he found a gun and a journal. He open

up the journal and read a page.

“November 23 2008,

Mission accomplished. Hit and run. Killed target: Alice Winston

LAPD. Alice had uncovered our operation and was about to go public. I

hired a man to go and kill her in a car accident. I am afraid her husband

Lucas knows too. Next target: Lucas Winston.”

“Mission accomplished,” Lucas muttered under his breath.

Lucas knew how the police department worked and he knew they would not get

back to him until tomorrow. He flipped through the journal. He found the days date and

read that journal.

“Off to Houston to get out of the way while Lucas dies. Staying with my college

roommate.”

Lucas grabbed the journal and the gun and called a cab to go to Carl’s house. He

explained the story and asked for his car. Carl threw him the keys.

“Good luck,” Carl nodded at him.

And with that, Lucas sped towards Houston.