Act V (16 page)

*****

“
So what’s the new job?” she
asked, cutting up her salad. “And how’d you land it so
fast?”

“
I’m making deliveries, you
know, courier stuff. It pays pretty well and they also cover my gas
mileage. It’s not as good as the job I had at Janico, but it’ll be
fine for now, and I get benefits.”

“
Sounds like a pretty good
deal.”

“
It is. Jason Carmichael set
it up for me. He heard I was in need, and he knows somebody who
knows somebody.”

“
Good,” she hesitated. They
had both gone to high school with Jason. He knew everybody worth
knowing and a lot of people you didn’t want to know. “Dorsey, have
you heard anymore about the Danning thing?”

“
Like what? They don’t keep
me in the loop. I pretty much have to sit around and wait until
somebody decides I’m a suspect or I’m not.”

“
Just wondering.”

A pensive expression crossed his face.
“Hey, I haven’t even asked you yet, I mean, I’ve been so wrapped up
in my own problems…How are you feeling these days?”

Glynnis felt her expression
freeze over.
He’s trying to be nice,
Glynnis. Don’t blow up.
“It’s fine. The
doctor says that I’m doing great and that the first year is a
pretty good indicator of how the disease will progress for the rest
of my life. So far it looks like I may do okay. Of course I may end
up riding around in a wheel chair too. You never know.”
Why did she have to say that? She had started out
just fine and then the witch from Hell surfaced at the last
second.
“Um, Dorsey, I didn’t mean
that…I…”

“
It’s okay Glynn. I deserved
it.” He looked at her as directly as he could, making a huge effort
to make consistent eye contact. “Glynnis, I was just stupid and
wrong. Can you forgive me?”

“
It’s over Dorsey. I’m not
mad at you anymore.”

“
That’s not what I meant.
These last few days have really forced me to reconsider some of my
past mistakes. The reason I asked you out tonight is that I hope
you’ll consider going out with me again.”

How could she have not seen
this coming? The apology, yes, but this?
“Dorsey, I don’t know. I mean, I’m sort of dating somebody.
Well, not really, but I’ve been thinking about it and…”

Dorsey’s face went rigid. “Mr. Old
Spice?”

“
Dorsey!”

Then he relaxed and his expression went
completely soft and compassionate making Glynnis wonder how he
switched emotions so quickly. “Sorry, I don’t have any right to
expect you to sit at home.” He took her hand. “Would you at least
think about it?”

“
I’ll think about it Dorsey,
but maybe you should think about this. When you found out that I
had a potentially crippling disease, you wanted out, you backed
away. Now that it looks like I might just be okay, and you’re
having a hard time with the police and God knows what else, you
want to come back. How do you think I feel about that?”

Dorsey just sat there looking pitiful
and making Glynnis wonder whether to comfort him or storm off in an
angry huff.

Men!

*****

There was a message on Glynn’s machine
when she got home at 10 p.m.. “Call me. I don’t care if it’s late.
I hope you didn’t let Mr. Smooth talk you into anything you’ll
regret.”

Lord, she was confused. Until a little
over a year ago she’d believed herself to be in love with Dorsey
Timmons. He was everything she could have asked for. Now he was
back asking forgiveness, asking for a second chance. At the same
time, here was Brice, good looking, mature, funny and exciting.
Erica would have said it was a good problem to have. Glynnis wasn’t
so sure.

She dialed Brice. He picked up on the
first ring. “Hey!”

“
Hey.”

“
Thanks for calling. I just
wanted to make sure you got in okay.”

“
Everything’s
fine…Mom!”

“
Sorry. Listen, would you
like to have a real date? Maybe tomorrow night? We could go to a
movie, dinner maybe.”

“
No shop talk?”

“
None.”

“
How can I turn down an
offer like that? I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

*****

Gabrielle stepped out of the shower and
pulled on her new gown. It was a cheap one she’d bought at Wal
Mart, but she didn’t care. It looked good and only covered enough
skin to make Kenny want to uncover it. She dried her hair and did
what she could to look natural but alluring. Thoughts of her
parents kept slipping into her head. They were still so angry,
threatening annulment, but she wasn’t sure that was even legally
possible under the circumstances. She hoped not.

Kenny was waiting for her on the bed.
“You look fantastic,” he told her. “Come here.”

She crawled onto the bed with him and
her mind went to a completely different place…away from all her
troubles, especially her parents and what they might do.

*****

With his binoculars trained on the
bedroom window, he watched every move. She was one sexy little
thing, that one. Oh the things he would do to her if he had the
time! Why on earth would she waste herself on the broke college
boy? He should show her what a real man was like. He was becoming
more and more agitated watching them, feeling his body respond, but
he forced himself to control his impulse. It wouldn’t do to
interrupt just yet. The timing had to be perfect.

He eventually made his way toward the
small apartment, waiting just a few minutes before ringing the
bell. From the sounds he could hear, the moans, the rustling, he
knew he’d gotten it right. He’d caught them just before they’d
managed to finish what they’d started. The exclamation of the male
voice from inside confirmed it. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
There was the sound of clothes being pulled on, then the door
opened. “Sorry dude, I didn’t order a pizza. Try next
door…”

He didn’t let him finish. As planned,
Kenny boy was preoccupied enough that it didn’t take a lot of
effort. He responded, “Sure you did. It says so right here.” Then
he lifted the brim of his hat and looked into the boy’s stunned
eyes…eyes that stared backed with sudden recognition.

Kenny almost laughed. “What the hell do
you…”

He zapped him and watched the boy fall
into a heap while his lovely wife stood in the hallway,
screaming.

He had her in a few seconds. He tied
her wrists and gagged her first. Wouldn’t do for any more noise to
escape. Then he mixed up the vial he’d brought with some water,
forcing the kid to drink. “Here Kenny, this’ll revive you.” Within
minutes the kid began to sweat and convulse, his lips and tongue
protruding. The girl made whimpering noises through her gag the
whole time. When it was done, he dragged the kid up onto the bed.
Lacking a real tomb, this would have to do.

He turned his attention to the girl.
Oh, how he wanted to do her first. He had wanted her from the
moment he’d seen her the first time, but that would risk
everything. He had to get it over with, now. But he might have a
little fun in the process. He reached into his backpack and pulled
out the dagger.

*****

Glynnis’ eyes flew open. No, no, not
again. They would both die…that young boy and girl. It was too much
to handle. She began to walk around the house, taking deep breaths
and trying to slow her heart, thinking as she walked bedroom to
kitchen to den to bedroom. When it became apparent that the house
couldn’t provide enough space, she opened the front door and called
for Carl. “Come on boy, let’s go for a walk.” He looked at her
curiously since it was obviously dark outside, but came willingly
enough. Carl loved to walk even if he had to stir himself from a
cozy bed. She clipped on his leash, grabbed a flashlight and her
keys, and locking the door behind her, set out for her regular
route around the neighborhood.

This was insane. It was three in the
morning and though there were street lights on, it still seemed
frightfully dark. She wanted more than anything to call Brice.
Funny that he, not Dorsey, was the one that came to mind when she
desperately needed to talk. Of course, Dorsey didn’t know about the
dreams and he was a terrible listener. She’d been afraid to tell
him when they’d been together because of how he might react. Brice
might not understand, but he did accept her strange ability without
treating her as if she had six heads. She wanted to call him more
than anything, but knew that she had to clarify her thoughts
first.

The cool night air gave her a feeling
of openness. She began to breathe more freely as she walked,
allowing her thoughts to wander. Somewhere, she could smell a patch
of honeysuckle. It grew wild on her fence and several other places
in the neighborhood. It reminded her of her childhood when she and
Erica would pull the honeysuckle blossoms off the vine and then
break off the base, pulling out the insides to loosen the single
drop of nectar inside. It was the sweetest taste in the world.
Glynnis longed for those simpler times before the insanity of a
murderer had invaded her life.

She forced herself to return to the
present and the dream. The murderer had used some kind of poison on
the boy, or so it seemed, since his lips were swollen. Or maybe, he
had strangled him. She hadn’t seen that part. When the dream began
the boy was already dead. Then he had forced a dagger into the
girl’s chest after playing with her mind, giving her hope that he
might allow her to live. It was all very familiar. Glynnis knew
why, but she would wait for Brice to tell her the background on the
couple before revealing what she already suspected.

She turned back to the house. She would
show some backbone and wait until a normal waking hour to call
Brice. She’d already given him every detail of the dream and knew
that calling him in the middle of the night wouldn’t help. Tomorrow
was going to be a long day for both of them and she needed to
sleep…if she could.

Chapter 12

Brice managed to get to the
station before Addison for a change. He’d spent most of the night
tossing restlessly. This whole thing was beginning to get to him.
He was feeling more and more protective of Glynnis for reasons that
he didn’t care to examine too closely. It also disturbed him to
know that she would willingly go out with Dorsey Timmons. True, it
wasn’t likely that he was a killer, but he had more evidence on
Timmons than on anyone else. On top of all that, a thought had
occurred to him deep in the night as sleep eluded him. If the
killer had based his murder on the play,
Hamlet
, who better to commit such a
crime than someone engaged to a director who had performed the play
any number of times. He didn’t seem to be the type, but maybe he
was just acting.

Brice sat down at his desk and began
arranging the calls he would make for the day. He would check
background on Timmons again and then try to talk to anyone on
Danning’s suspect list who might have been around that night and
double-check their alibis. He had to do something. This
investigation was going nowhere and he sensed that it wasn’t going
to be over anytime soon.

His cell phone rang.
“Gearhart.”

“
Brice,” It was Glynnis and
she sounded as if she hadn’t slept. “Brice, have you gotten any
calls on another murder? Oh, that sounded awful. But have
you?”

“
Glynnis, what’s the deal?
Did you have that dream again?”

“
Yes.” She was close to
tears.

“
You should have called
me.”

“
It wouldn’t have helped. I
don’t know any more than I did.”

“
Yeah, but at least I could
have come over. Maybe you’d feel better.”

“
You lost enough sleep on me
the night before. It’s okay. Can we get together later, after you
get off work? I just need to talk.”

“
Sure, we were planning on
it anyway. I’ll pick you up at seven, okay?”

“
Thanks Brice. I’ll see you
then.”

*****

Glynnis did her best to shake off the
eerie depression that had kept her awake most of the night. Today
was her first outdoor rehearsal and she had to be prepared. It
would be hot and hectic.

The actors showed up on time and thanks
to Aaron, the sets were already in place. “Let’s go. From the top.”
The witches took their places and began their lines. Behind her,
Glynnis could hear the tech guys adjusting, setting level, working
on light placement. She watched until the end of the first act.
Considering this was the first time on the outdoor stage, it was
going well. The actor playing Duncan took one step too many and
almost did a header off the elevated stage, but other than that,
they were fine. Glynnis pulled an icy water bottle from the cooler
by her side and took a long swallow. Then she pressed the bottle up
against her wrists, neck, and forehead. It was heating up and she
needed to get into air conditioning for a while. “Everybody go
relax for thirty minutes. Tech guys, we need to talk about cues.
Meet me inside.”

She walked into the cool air and began
to immediately feel better. Four of the five tech guys followed her
inside. “Where’s Aaron?”