Now & Forever 3 - Blind love (20 page)

“Whatever it is, Mac, please let it go. We are together and
nothing between us has changed. I still love you and I assume you still love
me.”

“More than ever.”

“Please hold me. When you hold me, I know everything will be
all right,” she said, snuggling up to him.

Mac nudged her over on her back and gave her a long, sweet
kiss; then he pulled her into his arms.

“Thank you for being the world’s greatest wife.” Mac hugged her
close.

She smiled and closed her eyes. Tomorrow everything would
look better.

Chapter Twelve

Rex was furious. Mac was stalling, then had the nerve to show
up at The Wet Tee Shirt to grill Deena.

When Deena got on Mac’s lap, Rex saw red. He moved out of the
shadows, fury evident on his face. She was about to sell him down the river
with the biggest sucker they had—she was sitting on Caldwell’s lap, and he was
kissing her and feeling her up. And Deena was enjoying it. Rex felt doubly
betrayed. He loved Deena as much as he could love anyone, but when he saw her
in Caldwell’s arms, his love turned to hate.

The bitch was out of control, her actions put him in jeopardy.
Not only would he lose this juicy piece of blackmail if she opened her mouth,
but he’d go to jail. Deena was threatening his very existence. Love or no love,
she had to go. And soon, before Caldwell returned and tried to seduce her
again, maybe successfully this time. The last piece of Rex’s heart that was
still able to feel, hardened into stone.

Rex planned his attack. Deena stammered an explanation and
Rex pretended to buy it. He let her make it up to him with kisses and hugs and
the promise of sex later. At the Wayside Inn, a cheap motel not far from
Deena’s house, he rented a room with a window on the first floor. After dark,
he climbed out the window and walked two miles through the woods behind the motel
to the road leading to Deena’s place. Upon arriving at her apartment, he was
sweet with her but cold fury and a sense of betrayal never left his heart. Rex
made love to her as his farewell act, making sure to get his physical
satisfaction in before he eliminated her.

Pills left over from his days at The Hideaway, where selling
drugs was a sideline, would do He mashed them up in the kitchen, opened a
bottle of champagne and poured a glass loaded with an overdose of sleeping
pills for Deena and a safe glass for himself.

“I thought we should celebrate catching a big fish, thanks to
you,” Rex said, entering the living room with the lethal brew. She smiled with
relief, probably figuring he forgave her for kissing Mac.

“Don’t we have to make a toast?”

“Sure, sure.”

“Okay, well…” She motioned for him to speak up.

“How about to success?”

“Yeah. To success…and love.” Deena raised her glass as Rex
watched.

He shoved his feelings for Deena out of his mind, trying to
forget the taste of her lips. Even in his short time in love, it was never
blind love. Now it was him or her, so she had to go. They got into bed and
Deena cuddled up to him. He pulled her into his arms as she drifted off to
sleep, never to wake up again. Rex dozed off for two hours. When he awoke, Deena
had no pulse. He kissed her cheek.

“So long sweetheart, sorry it didn’t work out.”

Rex would miss Deena’s warm kisses and the screwing, but sex
could be replaced. Now he had a job to do. Wearing gloves, Rex started wiping
down her apartment, getting rid of his fingerprints. He took the few clothes he’d
left there, packed them in a plastic bag and brought them to the curb. He spent
two hours removing any trace of himself from her place.

While cleaning up, he uncovered a small package wrapped in
festive paper and tied with a ribbon. There was a card. It read,

Happy three-month anniversary,
Rex.

Love,

Deena

He unwrapped it slowly. Rex couldn’t remember when he last
received a gift of any kind from anyone. It must have been Christmas or his
birthday when he was a boy. He opened the box to discover a man’s watch, a fine
man’s watch with a French name on it. This was no cheap watch. Rex looked it
over. The band was metal as was the face which told the time, the day and the
month.

He rolled it around in his hand, then couldn’t resist
stretching the band and trying it on. He threw his old cheap watch into a
garbage bag. The new watch looked fine on his powerful wrist. It gleamed in the
light from the street lamp filtering in through the window. This must have cost
Deena at least one month of her share of their blackmail money, maybe more.

Maybe he didn’t have to kill her. Maybe she wouldn’t have
talked to Caldwell.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Rex didn’t get where he was giving in to
maybe
.
He pulled himself back to reality and recalled the way she was looking at
Caldwell. Deena may have bought Rex a gift, but she would’ve slept with
Caldwell, Rex could see it in her face, her eyes, the way she looked at him.

In six months Deena would’ve figured out Rex couldn’t truly
love her.
It’s best she died in love.
Better she be gone with hope and love,
blind love, in her heart than heartbreak
.
Maybe I did her a favor.

With the plastic gloves on, he took her empty champagne glass
and put it in a plastic bag. He had to throw suspicion on someone else. Rex
walked back to the motel and picked up his car. He drove to Deena’s and loaded
the plastic bags into his trunk, while putting the murder glass under the front
seat.

At four a.m. he drove over to Mac Caldwell’s house. He saw
their black SUV parked in the driveway. Rex crept quietly through the driveway
to the car and opened the door gently. With the gloves still on, he placed the
glass on the floor of the back seat and eased the door closed until he heard a
click. At the sound of the click, two dogs started barking.
Oh shit! When did they get dogs?

Rex started to panic when he heard the dogs and made a
beeline for his car, which he had left running.

Lights went on in the Caldwell kitchen as Rex slid into the
front seat. He didn’t close the door all the way, put the car in gear and
slowly coasted into the shadow of a large tree and stopped, killing the engine.
He lay down on the front seat, his breath coming fast. He planned this so well,
but didn’t count on dogs!

Rex heard the front door of the Caldwell house open…he held
his breath until he heard it close a minute later. Rex waited, lying on the
seat, listening to his heartbeat. When all was quiet on the street, he sat up,
glanced around, and started the car up. He drove slowly off the street, back to
Mulberry Street and Alan’s house. He smiled to himself.
That’s what you get for touching my girl.
He knew he’d have to
abandon his blackmail scheme with Mac.
If
the blackmail dies with Deena, then maybe Caldwell and the police’ll think it
was her and her alone.
A smile of satisfaction played at his lips.

Relieved the threat to him was over, Rex returned to Alan’s
and poured himself a gin on the rocks. Sitting in the living room, looking out
the window at the light rain, he knew he’d miss Deena, her body and her nice
ways but she double crossed him.
Everyone
knows you can’t trust a double crosser. She asked for it.
Before he went to
sleep he remembered he could now keep the two hundred dollars he had been
paying her each month.
And a two hundred buck
bonus for me.

* * * *

The next day, on
Mulberry Street, nine a.m.

Rex got more and more suspicious of Alan, who never went out
at night, had no women over, yet claimed he wasn’t gay. Rex reviewed the tapes
from his little spy cams of the house at night and there was nothing there. He
had sort of a sixth sense about people who were up to no good, developed during
his days in New York City. And Alan was one of those people.

So if he wasn’t doing anything at home, he must be up to
something in his office. But how was he going to get in there to set up his
tiny cameras?

“I’m going to the campus bookstore this afternoon, wanna have
lunch, on me?” he said.

“Sure. What time?” Alan finished the last of his coffee.

“How about I pick you up at one?” Rex glanced at his new
watch.

“Can you make it noon? I have a one-thirty conference with a
student. I’m in One Parks Plaza, on the second floor. My name is on the
directory.”

“I’ll pick you up at noon.” Rex walked out, heading for Cozy
Corner for breakfast.

After breakfast, Rex drove to The Wet Tee Shirt and took four
tiny video cameras out of his locker there and put them in the pockets of his
pants. At eleven thirty he drove to the campus and looked up Alan’s office. He knocked
on Alan’s door at five to twelve. Once inside Alan’s office, Rex looked around.

“Pretty nice office you got here, Alan,” he said, scouting
out spots for cameras. “Lots of bookcases.”

“I teach English. Have to have books.”

“And a couch too. Pretty sweet set-up.”

Alan dropped the pen he was holding and it bounced under his
desk.

“Hmm, blinds on the door. Pretty private in here.”

“Students like privacy. Conferences are all about
confidentiality, you know.”

“Yeah, I like privacy too,” Rex commented, slipping two small
cameras on the bookcase, when Alan crawled under his desk to retrieve his pen.
Rex wandered over to the window.

“Nice view,” he said, slipping a small camera on the window
sill next to some of Alan’s little sculptures.

“It is. But it’s dark after hours as there are no houses…”

Rex got the picture. Something was going on in this office.
Whatever Alan was up to was definitely happening here…at night. Rex scouted out
the perfect place for his last camera, next to Alan’s clock on his desk.

“Where are we eating?” Rex asked.

“How about I treat you to lunch in the faculty lounge, cousin?”

“Thanks, Alan,” Rex said, smiling and clapping Alan on the
back as the two men walked out of the office. Alan turned off the lights, and closed
and locked the door.

* * * *

Callie was up early on Saturday. She fed the kids and let
them play in their rooms. Mac had been working hard, preparing for the new
semester. She let him sleep while she sat down at the kitchen table with a cup
of coffee and the morning paper.

She gasped and choked on the coffee, sputtering and coughing
until it cleared, when she saw the picture of Deena Johnson on the front page
and the article about her murder. Shock set in. Deena was killed on the day Mac
visited her.

It took two days for the police to discover Deena’s body was
missing. Then it made the front page of the newspaper. Callie put the paper
down as Mac came into the kitchen wearing only a pair of shorts. He scratched
his rough cheek and stifled a yawn. She looked at him quizzically, wondering
what happened when he went to see Deena. Mac poured himself a cup of coffee and
sat down next to Callie before he noticed her staring at him.

“What?” he asked, leaning over to kiss her.

“This.” Callie pointed to the paper.

Mac read the article, as he took the paper from his wife’s
hands.

“You don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you?”

“Not really.”

“Not really? Not really? You think I’d actually kill
someone…kill Deena in cold blood? Callie, you can’t be serious!”

“You were with her on the day she died. What happened between
you two?”

She saw the distressed look on his face.
Of course Mac would never kill anyone.
But then she remembered the
day at Doc’s Diner when he shot two people to protect her. He hadn’t killed
them, but he threatened to. Would he kill to protect Jason? Mac’s not a killer,
but the long shower and the way he was when he returned, made her wonder.

“Callie! Please…talk to me,” he begged, rising out of his
chair.

“I know you’re not a killer. But when people are pushed
beyond a certain point, isn’t everyone a killer? Doesn’t everyone have the
potential to kill to protect their family?”

“You think I killed Deena to protect Jason?”

“You shot Doc and Sergeant Loomis to protect me…”

“They threatened your life…is that what you think of me,
Callie?” Mac slowly sank into a chair.

“I don’t think you’re a killer.” Callie reached for his hand.

“You do. You think I could have killed her.” Mac moved his
hand away from hers.

“I don’t. Please tell me what happened.”

He got up from the table and went into the living room.
Callie followed.

“When you came home you were upset. You took a long
shower…like you were washing something off. What were you washing off?”

“I didn’t kill her, Callie, I kissed her. That’s what I was
washing off.”

“You kissed her?”

“Several times, while she sat on my lap,” he said, his eyes
flashing, his mouth set in a grim line.

“Was that all?”

“I touched her too,” he admitted.

“You touched her? Where?”

“Her breasts, where do you think? Her elbow?” he snapped.

“Mac! I thought…I thought we agreed…”

“You already forgave me for what I did, remember? You forgave
me and I called you the world’s greatest wife. Now you think I’m a killer but
you’re mad because I kissed and touched Deena in an attempt to save our family.
A little inconsistent here?”

Callie watched him pace in front of the window. Sadness crept
into her heart.

“I’m sorry, Mac. I’m being an idiot. Of course you had to do
whatever you could to get the information from Deena. Forget what I said. I
know you’d never kill someone.” He moved away from her, but she kept coming,
cornering him, winding her arms around his waist. He slipped his arm around her
shoulders and drew her to him. Callie kissed his bare chest. They stood at the
window locked in an embrace.