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Chapter 2

Author: Perfect Timing
"Is it serious?"

"No, just her usual thing. I just don't want her to be alone."

"Want me to come pick you up later?"

"No, go straight home."

She paused, her tone growing even softer.

"You've been fishing all day. Don't stay out in the cold. Go home, shower, and get some rest."

Warmth spread through my chest.

See? That was my wife.

That homeless guy had claimed she was cheating on me. What a joke.

"Oh, by the way," I said, "somebody's sending me these ridiculous texts. Says I stabbed her. Sounds almost believable."

Lauren went quiet. "What kind of texts?"

"Probably a scam. Who knows?"

"There are so many scams these days. Don't click any links, and definitely don't reply. Get home soon, okay? Call me when you're inside so I know you're safe."

It was such a normal thing for her to say that the last trace of unease disappeared.

"Sure. Leaving now."

I hung up and pocketed the phone.

Marty studied me. "You're really ignoring those messages?"

"What else am I supposed to do with scam texts?"

"And your wife?"

"Staying with her mom, Diane."

He was quiet for a moment. "Something about tonight feels wrong, Caleb."

I hugged my fish and laughed. "What's wrong? Thirty-five pounds! This is the greatest night of my life."

I said I was going home.

I didn't.

After three years of coming home empty-handed, I'd finally caught a monster. If I didn't show the entire town, what had I wasted all that bait money for?

My first stop was the tackle shop.

Gus, who owned the place, nearly had his eyes pop out of his head when he saw the fish.

"You caught that?"

"Obviously."

"Where'd you buy it?"

"Wow. That's just cruel."

Everyone in the shop crowded around for pictures.

I told them about what had happened at the river.

"There was this homeless guy on the bank. Said I'd been feeding all of them for three years and he owed me a favor. Soon as he disappeared, I hooked this thing."

Gus laughed. "What, the fish turned into a man to repay you?"

"You never know."

I patted its broad back.

It barely moved. Just watched me with those unnervingly dark eyes.

My phone buzzed again.

Claire again.

6:53 p.m.: "Caleb, I can't hold on much longer."

6:55 p.m.: "I've called the police."

6:58 p.m.: "Even if I die, I'll never let you get away with this."

After that, nothing.

I stared at the screen. For the first time, those messages made my skin crawl.

Then Gus raised his phone and called, "Caleb! Look over here!"

Without thinking, I scooped up the fish and flashed another huge grin.

Click.

In the picture, I looked like the happiest idiot alive.

"Shouldn't you get home?" Gus asked. "Won't your wife chew you out?"

I thought about Lauren's sweet voice and relaxed all over again.

"She adores me."

Everybody laughed.

Beside me, Marty muttered, "Quit joking around. What if those texts are real?"

I waved him off.

"If it's real, the police can call me. Those messages are obviously meant to scare me."

Weighed again at the tackle shop, the fish came in at thirty-five point four pounds.

Gus insisted the first scale must have been off.

Delighted, I took another picture and posted it online.

*Official second weigh-in: 35.4 pounds. Captain Skunk is officially retired.*

Lauren called again.

"Honey, you're still not home?"

"Almost."

"Don't stay out too late. I'm not there, so be careful getting home alone."

"I will."

"Call when you get in."

"Promise."

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  • Don't Go Home Before Seven   Chapter 9

    A month later, the case was closed.Both Bryce and Lauren were formally arrested and charged.Claire's family came to the police station once.Her mother's hair was completely white. She held my hands and apologized again and again.I didn't know what to say.The person who really deserved to hear those words could no longer hear anything.I went home to pack my things.The living room had new floor tiles. The walls had been repainted.But standing in the entryway, I still thought I could smell a faint metallic trace in the air.Police had taken the fish as evidence. By the time they returned it, it was no longer fit to eat.Marty asked if I wanted to bury it.I shook my head.I carried it back to the river and lowered it into the water.Of course, it was already dead.But I wanted to give it back to the place it had come from.The river quickly swallowed its body.I stood on the bank for a long time.Just before dark, somebody coughed behind me.I turned.The homele

  • Don't Go Home Before Seven   Chapter 8

    Claire didn't die right away.She begged them to call an ambulance.Lauren burst into tears.But Bryce said they couldn't call for help. If they did, both of them were finished.Then they thought of me.I always got home before seven.Lauren could leave first and establish an alibi.Bryce could use Claire's phone to send messages suggesting Claire and I had been having an affair, that we'd argued, and that I'd stabbed her.The knife belonged to me. Of course my fingerprints were on it.The body was in my home.Lauren would be elsewhere.And Bryce, as the victim's husband, could "discover" his dead wife in my apartment.If I'd come home before seven, I would have walked straight into their trap. I'd have been confused, possibly gotten her blood on me, and had no clear explanation for what had happened.Combined with those messages, it would have ruined me.There was just one thing they hadn't calculated.The fish.That thirty-five-pound monster had taken my bait at 6:12.

  • Don't Go Home Before Seven   Chapter 7

    At first, Bryce denied everything.He claimed Claire had suspected him of cheating and gone to my apartment to confront me. He insisted she and I were involved. He said he'd arrived to find her already dead, and I hadn't been home.He even said, "Lauren's such a delicate woman. She doesn't know anything about this."That was when I laughed.Those two had practically rehearsed their lines together.But they hadn't counted on one thing.A thirty-five-pound fish.They certainly hadn't expected me to be stupid enough to parade it around town for hours.Gus at the tackle shop confirmed I hadn't gone home.So did Officer Brennan.So did Darlene at the barbecue stand.Hank confirmed that I hadn't entered the apartment complex until 8:53.Tyler, the delivery driver, confirmed nobody had answered my door when the first-aid supplies arrived.And then investigators checked the apartment complex's security cameras.At 6:31 p.m., Bryce had carried a large black bag into my apartment.

  • Don't Go Home Before Seven   Chapter 6

    My ears rang."Lauren, what are you trying to say?"Her shoulders jerked."I'm not saying you were having an affair. I'm only saying she came over sometimes."Novak asked another question."Why did you repeatedly urge Caleb to go home last night?"Lauren sniffled."Because I was worried about him. It was getting dark, and he'd been fishing all day. I had no idea anything had happened at home."She said it so naturally.For the first time since I'd met her, my wife felt like a stranger.Technically, she hadn't told a single lie.She hadn't been home when I arrived. She had urged me to get home. She hadn't put anything incriminating in writing.But every sentence was another thin thread tying me to Claire.Suddenly, I remembered the homeless man's warning.*Your wife's cheating on you. If you get home before seven tonight, you'll die.*I looked at Lauren.She looked back at me.Her eyes were red, her lips pale. She still looked like a fragile woman who couldn't manage a

  • Don't Go Home Before Seven   Chapter 5

    By the time they took me to the station, the bottoms of my pants were covered in blood.Fish blood. Human blood.I couldn't tell them apart.The interrogation room lights were painfully bright.Detective Novak pushed my phone across the table."At 6:33 p.m., the victim, Claire Holden, sent you her first text."I nodded. "I saw it.""Why didn't you call the police?""I thought it was a scam."Novak lifted his eyes.I hurried to explain."Seriously. She said I'd been sleeping with her, then claimed I stabbed her. None of that happened. Why would I believe it?""And when officers called you tonight, why did you hang up?"I opened my mouth.This was even worse."I thought that was a scam too."The younger officer taking notes stopped writing.He looked at me like I was the dumbest man he'd ever met.I stared down at my hands."I really did."Novak spread several photographs on the table.The first showed the knife from our kitchen. My fingerprints were on the handle.

  • Don't Go Home Before Seven   Chapter 4

    I finally reached our apartment complex at 8:53 p.m.Hank, the security guard, took one look at the fish and lit up."Caleb! Hit the jackpot?"I stopped immediately. "Hank, how'd you know it weighs thirty-five pounds?""Oh, shut up. You just can't stop showing that thing off, can you?"He insisted on taking a picture with me.I stood beside the gatehouse, holding up the fish and giving a big thumbs-up."Why so late?" he asked."Victory tour.""Where's your wife? Didn't come home with you?""She's at her mother's."Hank nodded. "Now that you mention it, she left earlier. Bryce from next door took off not long afterward, too. Looked like he was in an awful hurry.""He always gets weird around me. No idea what his problem is."Hank gave me a long look and sighed."You really don't worry about much, do you?"I was heading toward my building when a delivery driver came out and almost collided with the fish's tail."Whoa, man. That's a monster.""Just caught it.""Mr. Voss?

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