Act V (14 page)

She’d squeezed his hand and lifted her
eyebrows suggestively. “I’ve always wanted to meet a man with real
ethics.”

He’d rolled his eyes and then looked at
their clasped hands. She could see the internal battle right there
on his face. Finally he’d said, “Glynnis, I…ah, Hell!” Then he’d
given her a quick, but very tender, kiss and had run out to his
car. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he shouted over his
shoulder.

The kiss had sent shivers running
through her. It left her with promises of things to come. She liked
Brice, probably a lot more than she should, considering what had
brought them together.

Snuggling back under the
covers, she thought,
If he only knew what
I saw when I passed out at the restaurant today.
But she wasn’t going to tell him. He’d find out
for himself or he wouldn’t. Glynnis crawled out of the bed to get a
glass of water and stopped. Suddenly her good mood was lost. She
knew what had awakened her. It had been another dream; this one
worse than the last. But she couldn’t recall any details, only that
it had been horrible and bloody. Oh please she thought, just this
once let me be wrong.

*****

Wearing a baseball cap, oversized shirt
and pants that hung down far below his hips, he walked into the
post office. He looked like one of those wanna-be thugs that
couldn’t find their asses with both hands. But it was important
that nobody recognize him, not that it was likely to happen this
far away from home. This particular PO was an hour’s drive from
Clearview. He wasn’t taking any chances.

There was the news bimbo to handle as
well. He would have loved to take her and strangle her with her own
long, lovely hair, but for now, she was useful. For two days she’d
been harping about a psychic who had been rumored to be working
with the police. The reports had made it clear that the police
didn’t use psychics, but just in case, he was keeping an eye out.
Couldn’t let some freak ruin all of his hard work.

He opened the box. There it was, the
last piece of his plan, in a small cardboard box filled with
packing peanuts and a tiny vile. All was ready. Now it was only a
matter of proper timing. This would be so sweet. Really, he was
providing an invaluable service, he thought; getting rid of
undesirable vermin and saving the rest of the world the
trouble.

*****

She had checked the surveillance tape
so many times that Sue Beth’s eyes were going buggy. There was this
guy, dressed in black with a hoody that covered everything. He was
wearing latex gloves. He lifted a Civil War Uniform hat from the
open display that showed the paraphernalia of a Confederate
soldier. Then he wandered over to the kids’ exploration section
that held dinosaur bones and other prehistoric items, and picked up
the fern fossil. Finally, he made his way over to the weapons
display. He tapped the glass with one of those steel encased
flashlights, and it cracked open allowing him to take the ornate
dagger inside. That was when the silent alarm had gone off. The
security guard slept through the whole thing. Apparently the guy
had knocked him in the head with the same flashlight; he never saw
it coming. The thief slipped out the front door at 12:05 a.m. with
two relatively worthless items unless you were a real history buff,
and one steel dagger with engravings that held a monetary value in
some circles but couldn’t be easily pawned.

What the heck was this about? A prank?
A gang initiation? It was just too strange. To top it off, there
was no evidence to collect because three hundred and fifty-two
people counting the guards had been in that museum, leaving traces
of themselves as well as prints all day. There would be no
narrowing it down to one person. Sue Beth gulped another mouthful
of her mocha latte cappuccino and then ran the surveillance tape
back for one more look.

*****

Two days of fairly productive
rehearsals passed and Glynnis had at least partly pushed her
anxiety over the Danning case to the back burner. She’d had no more
dreams since the one she couldn’t quite remember a couple of nights
ago so she’d replaced her Danning worries with worries about the
production. Macbeth would open soon and she had to make everything
right. She refused to allow a single actor on stage opening night
unless every detail had been accounted for. In live theatre there
were already a thousand things that could go wrong without leaving
anything to chance, not to mention the so-called Macbeth curse that
caused most actors to refer to it as “The Scottish Play.” This was
probably a serious psychological control issue that Freud would
have loved. Screw Freud, she had a job to do. Being a control freak
was one of the reasons her plays were always a huge
success.

Besides the play, there was Dorsey.
He’d called her three times since he’d shone up on her doorstep on
Saturday night. Every time he’d been tipsy and at least once he was
on a full-blown tear. Glynnis had told him to get his act together
and she’d talk to him, but not while he was drinking. She was a
little worried about that. His mother had been an alcoholic prior
to her death. Most doctors said it was hereditary.

Tonight, Glynnis just wanted to relax,
read for a while and get some sleep. They were taking the
performance onto the outdoor stage tomorrow and it would require
all her energy. Doing outdoor performances had always been a
challenge, but now that she had the MS to deal with. She became
overheated and fatigued a lot faster than she normally would have
in the summer sun. She was prepared, with coolers full of water and
battery operated fans but it wouldn’t be easy. She was already
experiencing banding, tightening of her chest muscles. It felt like
a vice-clamp designed as a torture device. It was brought on by
stress and various other elements that couldn’t always be avoided.
Glynnis tried to stay cool and rested to keep it at a
minimum.

She took Carl for a very quick walk,
just long enough to do what he had to do, and then showered and
settled down with a book. The phone rang. She almost didn’t answer
it, but was glad she did when she heard Brice on the other
end.

“
Hey, how’s my favorite
director?”

“
Exhausted, but feeling like
I’m gonna have a hit play soon. How about you? How’s life in police
detective land?”

“
Same ole, same ole.” That
just meant there weren’t any developments he could tell her about.
“Did you remember to lock your doors?” He’d called every night
since the newscast that had mentioned her possible involvement and
asked her the same things.

“
You know I did.”

“
Is Carl with
you?”

“
Where else would he
be?”

“
I could come over and do an
outside check if you want.”

“
Brice, really!” He’d
checked on her every night but was keeping a physical distance.
Glynnis understood why. It was best this way, but she couldn’t say
she liked it.

“
Okay, I’ll call you in the
morning.”

“
You don’t have
to.”

“
Talk to you
then.”

“
Goodnight,
Brice.”

“
Night, Glynnis.”

*****

“
Don’t cry, honey, soon
you’ll have no worries at all.” He pulled the dagger out of his
bag, and wiped it clean with his shirt. The girl was terrified. She
wore a pink, frilly gown that hardly covered her. Her wrists were
duct-taped together behind her back. There was a gag in her mouth.
She was staring at the dark figure and then at something else that
caused her to go into hysterics all over again. Someone was on the
bed, someone that didn’t appear to be conscious and was definitely
naked, his lips swollen and corroded. “Oh, don’t worry about your
boy there, Sweetie, his troubles are already over.” She began to
whimper. “Come along now, let’s get you up there on the bed by your
lover.” She tried to fight but he held the point of the dagger to
her neck. She lay down. “There, there, it’s time to stop fussing
so. Give him a kiss goodbye now.” He forced her to lean over and
pressed her so that her lips touched those of the dead man. When he
laid her back into a prone position her face was wet with tears and
she had begun making whimpering noises. Her eyes widened as he
played the dagger under her chin, beneath her breasts, one at a
time and then lower, always with the possibility that he might
start cutting at any time. “You have beautiful breasts you know. If
I let you go will you show them to me? Will you let me touch you
like you were letting him touch you before you knew I was watching?
Hmm? Is that a yes?” He reached as if to lift her up and cut her
bonds but with a sudden change in movement, rammed the blade past
her rib cage and into her heart. She convulsed, stiffened, and then
lay still. “Too bad,” he said, “might have been fun.”

“
Oh dear
Lord!” Glynnis stumbled for the door, gasping to let in air. “No,
not again.” She gulped air into her lungs and stood there only long
enough to know that she wouldn’t choke or throw up. Then she ran
inside and found her cell phone. She searched through her address
book and hit
call
.

“
Gearhart.” Brice’s groggy
voice responded after four rings.

“
It’s happening again Brice.
I just had…oh, Brice, can you come over?”

*****

Brice was at her door in fifteen
minutes. When she opened it he could only take her into his arms as
she cried. Carl was subdued and sat quietly on the couch letting
out an occasional whine. Perhaps he sensed his owner’s
distress.

Brice urged her into the den and sat
with her on the couch; Carl snuggled up on her other side. “Tell me
about it.”

He held her head against his chest as
she recalled every gruesome detail.

Chapter 10

It was almost time. Just this one more,
and then he could accomplish what he had set out to do. Who said he
wasn’t goal oriented? He placed the taser, the dagger and the vial
into his backpack. Then he gathered up his clothes for
later.

He looked at his reflection in the
mirror. In his business suit, he appeared to be the
thirty-something image of success. He looked confident, not to be
messed with. He had purchased the suit, knowing that his image to
others would be extremely important one day. He wanted to dress the
part. But it wouldn’t do to wrinkle or mar this piece of
contemporary art in fabric and his job required a bit of dirty
work. He removed the suit and placed it carefully on the hanger and
back into the closet. He then dressed in his khakis and golf shirt.
First, he’d attend to his paying job, then later, he’d return to
the hidey hole, change into his real work clothes and go to the job
he was looking forward to. This was turning out to be more fun than
he’d ever imagined and tonight would be unbelievably
exciting.

*****

“
Hey Addy,” the desk officer
called to him when he walked in the door. “You got more stuff from
police services on that freaky sword killing.” He handed an eight
by twelve manila envelope to Paddix. “It came by courier about an
hour ago, so Handy and Hawkins already know about it but they left
it for you to look over.”

Addison pulled the paper out of the
envelope. “Thanks Barry,” he glanced at the slightly older man.
“How’s the wedding coming?”

Barry gave a noncommittal shrug and a
chuckle. “Hey, I’m the daddy. All I gotta do is walk her down the
aisle. Her mama though, that’s another story. She’s about to crap
wedding bells trying to choose flowers, buy invitations and pick
out a wedding cake with Janie. She and Janie can’t agree on
anything. I told her it was a good thing this wasn’t some big
society wedding. She’d be in the nut house for sure.”

Addison laughed. Barry was his kind of
guy, easy-going and to the point with a few creative curses thrown
in. Add to that the fact that he had two daughters just like
Addison and that Addison could see himself going through the same
junk in a few years, well that just made Barry even more
likeable.

“
Good luck with the wedding.
I’ll see you later,” he said, and headed for his desk. He was going
through the report when Brice rolled in ten minutes later looking
like mud on ice. “Oh man, you look like you been riding on the back
of a bad tempered crocodile all night. Did you forget to go to bed?
Or maybe it’s the bed that’s the problem.” Then he looked at his
partner’s unsmiling glare and all kidding stopped. “What’s going
on?”

Brice took the envelope from Addy, sat
down at his desk and rubbed a thumb and forefinger across his eyes.
“Glynnis had another dream last night, Addy. Is there any coffee?”
His eyes swept around toward the break room.

“
I just started it. Finish
your story and by then it’ll be done.”

“
This is the second time
she’s dreamed it. She didn’t remember any real details first time
around, so she was hoping it wasn’t the real thing.”

“
Are you saying she thinks
there’s gonna be another murder?”

Brice nodded. “She called me at 1a.m.
all shook up about it. Says it’s a couple this time, a young
couple. There’s at least one stabbing involved.”

“
I don’t suppose she got
their names.”