Time Jacker, Aaron Crash [most important books of all time txt] 📗

we would’ve dated if we weren’t in the same program. We both agreed that you don’t shit where you eat. But she was great, and it was nice just being with her. At some point in the future, when we weren’t eating at the same place, I planned on asking her out. There was another guy in the program, Walter Malcolm, of the Malcolm family. That family basically helped build Plum Creek, and Walter knew it. He wanted to be a cop because one brother basically ran the city council, and another was on his way to running the fire department. Walter would run the police department, and then the Malcolms could do whatever the hell they wanted in Plum Creek.”

Jack remembered hating Walt right from the start. He was a confident, smarmy dickhead who saw the police academy as just a rung on the ladder. Jack’s father had told him to just mind his own business, and that had been Jack’s plan. Until that night outside the bar.

Jack stopped at a stoplight, waited until the light turned green, then continued his story. “I’d lost two brothers by then. Four of us left alive. They’d go after that, one after another, until it was just me and Andy. He just died...about a month ago. It was cancer, so it wasn’t as much of a surprise.”

“I’m sorry, Jack,” Gabby whispered.

“Me too. All the death was hard on everyone, including my father. Dad said it was a terrible thing, to bury your children. I can’t imagine.” Jack didn’t want to get caught up in the death of his father, so he kept talking. “Long story short, Friday nights my academy class would go out for drinks at this bar we all liked. Not Pinetree’s—a cop bar on the road to Sedalia called O’Malley’s. One night, it was past midnight...but let me back up, I guess. Or I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.” Talking was hard, and his throat kept closing up.

“Please, tell us,” the angel said quietly. “You’ve been carrying this around too long by yourself.”

Bailey was turned away from him, sitting silently and hiding her face.

Jack resumed. “Walt left early that night. Or seemed to. Jennifer left around midnight, and I offered to walk her out, but she said it wasn’t necessary. She was a big girl, a proud woman, soon to be a Plum Creek police officer. Anyway, I figured I’d leave at closing time. I was having a good time with my buddies. We were close. It’s a dangerous job, stressful, and it brings people together. It was my turn to buy, and I left my wallet out in the car. Thank God I did. Or maybe thank the Devil. Either way.”

“Either way,” Bailey murmured. She was caught up in the story. He could tell by her voice.

“Out in the parking lot, Jennifer came running out of the darkness. Her clothes were ripped, she had blood on her face, and I knew she’d been attacked. And who do you think attacked her?

“Walter Malcom comes running out from between two cars, grabs her by her hair, and pulls her back. He wasn’t drunk. He was just an asshole.”

Jack remembered the rage he felt, and the adrenaline dump that only added to his fury. Seeing that helpless, broken look on Jennifer’s face had nearly shattered Jack’s sanity. It was like what was happening to her shouldn’t have happened because she was such a great woman, strong and proud, and soon to be a Plum Creek police officer. That, however, wasn’t meant to be.

“I tore Jennifer away from Walter fucking Malcolm, and I punched him right in the face. He said something about killing me, killing her, to keep us quiet. Then he pulled a gun. I took that gun, we fought over it, and I won. I wasn’t thinking, and I unloaded the clip into his chest. I just kept thinking of what he’d done to Jennifer. He’d raped and beaten her and told her if she told anyone he’d kill her family. And while murder is wrong, sure, I’d kill him again over and over. That’s my big sin in my life. In some ways, murdering Walt Malcolm gave me a moral compass. Stealing money from rich pricks isn’t the best thing, but it’s not the worst thing either. I really had planned on wearing a white hat. Now I suppose all I get is gray.”

“What happened next?” Bailey asked in a subdued voice. It kind of surprised Jack that she’d asked.

He had an answer for her. “Walter Malcolm’s family went after me and Jennifer, said we were lying, and got us kicked out of the academy. I’m not sure where Jennifer went. I had to do some jail time, but not much. It was enough to basically blackball me from law enforcement in Colorado. Not enough to keep me from being a glorified mall cop.”

Jack inhaled and let the breath out slowly. “My dad took it hard. He never quite believed me about that night. The Malcolms had really good lawyers, and the whole department just saw me as a bad egg. My brothers were cool about it all, but I’m not sure they believed me either. Moms and Aunt Sue always took my side, and we’ve hated the Malcolms ever since. Dad was killed soon after all that bad business. At least my dad didn’t have to bury Eli or Andy. He got to be done with funerals.”

“How did Eli die?” Gabby asked.

Jack shook his head, laughing because it still hurt to talk about Eli. “He got this freak infection from cutting himself while he was doing yardwork. Put him in the hospital, IV antibiotics didn’t do shit, and he died. Eli worked the worst of the worst here in Plum Creek, which isn’t much, but we do have our bad parts of town. After Dad got shot, we figured we wouldn’t lose anyone else. We were wrong.”

Jack drove by the Cupid’s Arrow and kept going. He pulled