Trifecta (83 page)

"Omar held the big black bug over my mouth.  It was
wiggling between his fingers as he lowered it toward my mouth.  I was gagging as
I could feel its legs scrabbling over my tongue.

"Omar told me I was never to tell anyone what happened. 
If I did I would die.  I kept nodding yes, yes yes.  Then he started giving me instructions
about what I was to do in the future"

Suzanne was going out of control again.  Her heart was
palpitating so violently the entire couch was shaking. 

Vincent had never been so angry in his life.  He didn't
need to hear the actual commands that Omar had given to Suzanne.  He had heard enough. 
It was obvious that Omar knew of his existence and had used Suzanne back at him,
to try to hurt and humiliate him.

He didn't know that bringing her out of hypnosis without
understanding the extent of Omar's hold over Suzanne would be the worse mistake
he had ever made.

Suzanne looked refreshed, as though she had been relieved
of a great burden when he told her to wake up.  But now the burden was his and covered
him like leaden armor.  He had been deceiving himself.  His smart little tricks
to lure Omar had precipitated rape and torture.

That evening, Vincent felt profoundly relieved
when he dropped Suzanne off at the Honolulu airport.  He stood and watched her plane
depart from inside the airport lounge.  She would be safely home in a few hours.

M
ichelle took the remote and turned on the television
after work on Friday.  The week had taken it's toll.  She flopped down  on the couch
and stretched out.  The whole wonderful weekend was spread out before her.

Heroshi's annual party, held at the home of the corporate
controller, Henry Chun, was tomorrow night.  Everyone from the office would be there. 
Other than that, she was free.  She kicked off her shoes, contemplating the beach
for sure and a movie she wanted to see on Sunday.

Lucifer leaped into her lap.  He stretched up, paws on
her shoulders and purred in her face.  Then he patted her cheek with his paw and
licked her chin.

Michelle would have enjoyed the extravagant affection if
she hadn't seen how ferocious the kitten could be.  She petted him and wished momentarily
he could be hers and always mellow like this.  During her childhood she'd always
had pets; the menagerie composed of abandoned and hurt animals.  Her family tolerated
the creatures and almost believed she could heal them.  It was practically a family
joke.  She was constantly coming home with some pathetic creature.  There had been
a bat and a toad, a snake, a baby piglet for a while, and many wild birds besides
the usual dogs, cats and rabbits.

Lucifer made himself a warm ball under her arm as Michelle 
dozed off.  She was jolted awake when one of the newscasters  mentioned the Kavali
Building on Kalakaua.  Michelle was like a sensitive mother to her enormous steel,
glass and concrete children. 

The newscaster said that one of the bank robbers at the
Kavali Building had been apprehended because an anonymous bag of money had been
sent to the police.  The robber tried to pass bills in direct sequence to the ones
that had been sent to the police.

She had helped catch a criminal!  Michelle sat up and rubbed
her eyes.  It was unbelievable.  She watched attentively as a young man nervously
admitted that he had been given instructions about how to commit the robbery by
a large man who could not speak, but gave written directions to two of the employees
of the bank, who had actually done the deed.  The mute mastermind was described
as an imposingly large man, approximately six and a half feet tall.  He had a broken
nose and was very muscular.  An artist's rendering appeared on the television screen. 

It was Samson Stoker.  Even with the crude caricature drawing
Michelle would have recognized him.  Omar's chauffeur.

The newscaster warned in deadly serious tones that the
man might be armed and dangerous.  If anyone recognized him they were to call the
Central Police Division in the Waikiki area, but not to confront him directly. 

Michelle was still sleepy and stretched out again, muting
the television.  Nebulous connections were made as she mulled the implications. 
First, from what she had observed, Samson was not smart enough to masterminded a
successful robbery.  But Omar was extremely intelligent.  Some of the stolen money
had landed in her office.  So someone had tried to implicate her. 

The Bird of Paradise flower with its ugly inhabitant had
come from Omar.  In fact, all the disasters to the Heroshi buildings had occurred
after Omar had moved here.  When Heather fell on the rocks at Hanauma Bay, she said
someone who looked like Omar had called out to her, precipitating the accident.

Omar's cat had attacked Nakamura this afternoon.

Were these absurd notions, or was there a symmetry to
the whole thing?  The scariest circumstance was that the reported rapes had
begun the day Omar moved to Hawaii, one week ago; the day Heather had first
seen Omar move in with one of his 'sisters.'

Michelle decided she was having paranoid delusions, thinking
all the events revolved around her personally.  No one could make electrical building
systems shut down.  No one could move objects in her own locked apartment.  As her
mind floated toward sleep something in her brain was saying that there was someone
who apparently could get into locked apartments. 

All was silent for a while and Michelle's slept deeply
for almost an hour.  But there were acoustical problems in the building.  Sounds
were amplified through the heating duct system from the apartments on line directly
with her own, from above and below.  Michelle awakened briefly when she thought
she heard muffled thumps and screaming.  Then she was asleep again and her dreams
accounted for the noisy disturbance with a series of nightmares.

Michelle awakened to the phone's shrill ring.  The dreams
exploded into nothingness except a nasty, depressed ambience in her mind.  It was
Nakamura calling.  He wondered if she could take him to Henry's party the next day. 
Seems he had received a couple of speeding tickets.  He thought that maybe the big
limousine was attracting too much police attention.

"It couldn't be the way you drive?"  Michelle
asked, trying not to laugh.

"Tokyo is so crowded, I might have been carried away
a couple of times."

"Um hum."

"So.  How's the little devil, Lucifer?"

"Right now he's purring and licking my chin.  You
don't wear aftershave?"

"No.  I hate cologne.  Never use it."

"All I could think of was maybe a particular scented
aftershave."

"How's Heather?"

"I called her before I left the office.  She's fine." 
Michelle was watching animated TV news pictures without sound as she spoke.  She
saw what looked like a familiar building, then realized with surprise she was gazing
at her own condominium.  "Wait!  Don't say anything for a minute."

Michelle hit the sound on the remote control.  An excited
voice, doing an overlay, was saying, "...on location where the rape and murder
took place, right now!  The name of the deceased woman is not being revealed, pending
notification of relatives."

"What's wrong?" Nakamura asked.

"Wait a minute," Michelle said.

There was someone knocking on her front door.

Michelle threw the telephone receiver down and ran to the
door, suddenly panicked, afraid Heather and been murdered. 

As she ran the knocks turned to pounding.

She opened the door.  Heather, looking scared, had her
arm up, poised to pound some more.  "I thought it was you!  Someone's been
murdered in our building."

"I thought it was you!" Michelle gasped, her
heart thumping painfully.  She grabbed Heather's arm and pulled her inside.  "Let's
watch."

As Heather entered, Lucifer flattened down into a low crouch,
beginning an almost inaudible growl.  He began crawling toward Heather, belly almost
touching the floor.  He looked like a lion stealthily hunting his prey.  Deadly
and intent.

"Oh, no you don't."  Michelle ran to the kitten,
picked him up and carried him to the bedroom, depositing him on the bed.  She almost
wasn't fast enough when she scooted out.

"Did they say anything else?" Michelle asked
Heather as she hurried back to the living room.

"It happened a few minutes ago.  Neighbors heard screams
and called security.  It's an apartment in the hallway right above us."

The television screen still showed police activity in front
of the building.  Michelle went to the balcony, opened the sliding glass door and
looked down.  She could see six police cars.  It was totally dark outside now and
the red and white flashes of their lights revolved, reflecting on news vans, an
ambulance and a crowd of onlookers.  As she watched, two policemen carrying a covered
stretcher came out from the front of the building and walked with their burden to
the waiting ambulance.

She turned around and saw the same scene on the television. 
The next scene was an aerial helicopter view of the building.  Evidently they were
still searching for the murderer from the air.  Which meant he had escaped.  He
could be hiding somewhere in the building, still creeping around the corridors.

She heard a strange squawking sound and almost jumped. 
Then she remembered Nakamura.  Michelle picked up the receiver and held it away
from her ear.  He was yelling.

"Stop yelling," Michelle screamed into the receiver.

"Ouch.  What happened?"

"Someone was killed in my building.  I saw it on TV
when you were talking.  I was afraid it was Heather, and she came over to see if
I was all right."

"That's not possible."

"Turn on your television."

"Just a sec.  There."

"See it?"

She heard him sigh.  "Yeah."

They all watched in silence for a while, Nakamura in his
hotel room, Michelle and Heather together.

"I have to go," Nakamura finally said.  "I'll
call you tomorrow.  About Henry's party."

"Okay.  Oh.  Don't feel personal about Lucifer.  He
started to attack Heather when she came over."

"I guess I should feel relief it wasn't something
disgusting about me abhorrent to cats, but I don't like that animal in there with
you."

"Lucifer's fine with me," Michelle said.  "Don't
worry."

Michelle and Heather took the stairs to the floor
above.  As they were climbing Michelle wanted to know why Heather though she had
been murdered.  Heather explained about the newspaper report.

"That's why you poured coffee on it?"

"You caught me?"

"I thought you were affected strangely by the concussion.
 Or going bonkers."  They looked at each other and laughed nervously.

When they exited the stairwell, policemen jammed the hallway. 
Yellow crime tape was being applied to the apartment door directly above Michelle's
apartment.

"I hope they caught the sucker," Heather said. 
"It was Martha."  Her chin was quivering.  Heather knew everyone in the
building.

They went to the nearest man in a blue uniform, a young
Hawaiian, and asked what had happened.  He said the woman had evidently allowed
the killer into her apartment because the door had been locked, so it fit the description
of the other attacks.  He warned them not to allow anyone into their apartments.

As they went down the stairs again, Heather said, "It
may have fit what they think is a pattern, but Martha was a lot older than the other
women.  In her late-forties, I guess.  She was divorced.  A teacher.  She used to
say I was too skinny and give me cookies when I came over to visit." 

Heather was wiping tears on her cheeks with the back of
her hands.  "I'm scared, Michelle.  I think someone's doing it to you.  Warning
you.  Or threatening.  Or playing some obscene game.  This one was just too close." 

They both went to the balcony and stood outside, watching
police cars departing the building. 

"I'm scared for you," Michelle said as they stood
there.  "You've had two very strange accidents in one week."

A big black limousine careened in front of the driveway
as they stood watching the activity.  It screeched to a sudden halt, rocking slightly. 
Nakamura jumped out, slamming the door, and strode quickly to the building.  Two
security guards Michelle had never seen before hurried over to him.  He was waving
his arms and appeared to be giving them hell, although she couldn't hear what he
was saying.  The two men kept shaking their heads.  He finally threw up his hands,
after evidently yelling a lot, and slammed back into the car.  When he squealed
abruptly away, two of the police cars followed him.

Michelle shook her head.  He was going to get another ticket.

Later that evening Michelle noticed that Lucifer's
food was almost gone.  She had ruined some of it in the microwave that morning. 
She decided to go to the store.  When she left the apartment she saw one of the
security guards who had been talking to Nakamura standing in her hallway near the
elevators, as though he was personally guarding this one particular floor.  Michelle
saw him watching her curiously.

When she returned the guard was still there.  He had on
the same khaki uniform as the regular guards, but she knew all of them.  His impolite,
unhurried and curious perusal as she went toward her apartment gave her the creeps. 
But then, she didn't like any man watching her in particular.  It was an odd situation
and she suspected that Nakamura had posted the guy there.  It was certainly an unnecessarily
expensive.  There were uniformed cops all over the building. 

As she walked down the hall Michelle saw a woman standing
in front of her door.  She was tall, with curly short brown hair.

"You're Michelle?" the girl asked.

Michelle nodded.

"Oh.  Well, Omar thought you might not have enough
of Lucifer's special food.  He asked me to bring some over to you."

The woman held out a plastic bowl.  "He said for me
to chop it up, but I'm staying in a motel on Kalowa, and I didn't have a knife."

Michelle smiled and showed her the contents of the bag
she was holding.  Tender Vitals.  Purina cat chow.  Frisky's tender meaty morsels. 
Michelle had also purchased some raw liver.  "Come in.  But be careful.  Lucifer
doesn't like strangers."

"I think Lucifer will recognize me.  My name is Suzanne."

Michelle unlocked the door and they entered.  Lucifer was
waiting and did indeed recognize the woman, or girl, as Michelle didn't think she
was much older than eighteen.  Lucifer rubbed against her ankles and purred.

"Your apartment is beautiful," Suzanne said,
looking around.  "I'm living in a dump right now, but I wanted to stay in Hawaii
for a couple of weeks.  I couldn't afford anything nice."

They went into the kitchen and Michelle started putting
different kinds of cat food into bowls.  "Let's see if Lucifer will eat regular
food."

Michelle lined the bowls up in a row and Lucifer picked
the raw liver.  He ate like he was starving.

"You should be careful, Suzanne," Michelle said. 
"Hawaii is usually safe for tourists, but some parts of Waikiki can be rough."

Suzanne nodded, laughing at the cat's antics.  He was shaking
each piece like he was killing it.  Then he dragged hunks out of the bowl so he
could eat on the floor.  "I was staying at the Royal Hawaiian for a couple
of days, but I had a disagreement with someone and had to leave."