by Leslie Meier
But at the time, she had no clue about any secret room.
Not until now.
“How did Chef Romeo convince you to keep quiet about what you had found?”
“With a big wad of hundred-dollar bills,” Lenny snorted. “He told me there was more where that came from if I stayed loyal to him and kept my mouth shut. I figured why not; I’d do anything he wanted as long as he kept throwing cash at me. But just my luck, he died right after that, and then you took over . . .”
“I always wondered why you didn’t stay on, why you just up and quit . . .”
Lenny shrugged. “Big mistake, in retrospect. But at the time, I was just a dumb lug with money to burn. Why should I work when I could party, drink beer, smoke weed, chase girls? I even got myself a brand-new Harley Davidson, which I crashed into a telephone pole trying to do a wheelie three days after I bought it.”
“And then you found yourself broke again,” Hayley guessed.
“Who knew I could go through so much money that fast? I’d never had two cents to my name, so how was I ever going to be responsible with that kind of cash? My parents had already kicked me out; I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t afford rent, so a couple buddies took me in for a while, but I couldn’t stay with them forever, I got desperate. . .”
Hayley stood up from the cot. “So you began robbing houses for spare cash and jewelry you could pawn.”
“I promised myself I was only going to do it once. Just once. So I would have enough to put down a deposit on a room to rent. I knew the Clements on Arata Drive up by the golf course were going to be out of town. I overheard Mrs. Clement talking to a friend at the Shop ’n’ Save. It was so easy. I was in and out in no time. I had enough for rent and food for a whole month. But then, there was more partying, the money disappeared again, so I thought to myself, one more time, just one more time . . .”
“But it wasn’t one more time. You kept going . . .”
“Like I said, it was always so easy . . .”
“Until it wasn’t,” Hayley said sharply.
Lenny’s eyes flicked to the floor.
Hayley folded her arms. “Clara Beaumont was not supposed to be home tonight; she was supposed to be out of town visiting her sister, but she caught a cold and canceled her trip at the last minute, and that’s when the two of you came face-to-face in her house . . .”
“I was coming up the stairs when I looked up and saw her standing there at the top of the landing, holding a baseball bat in her hand. She had heard me break in through the kitchen window downstairs and was coming to investigate. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone . . .” Lenny mumbled. “I swear, Hayley, I was more scared than she was . . .”
“What happened next?”
“Mrs. Beaumont started screaming and yelling, and the next thing I knew she was coming at me with the bat and taking whacks at me! You should see the nasty bruises I got on my arm. I was just trying to defend myself . . .” His voice quivered. “But . . .”
Hayley’s heart sank as she anticipated what was coming next. “But what, Lenny?”
He looked up at Hayley, his face full of shame. “I was just trying to grab the bat away from her, but when I yanked it out of her hand, she somehow lost her balance, and that’s when . . .”
“She tumbled down the stairs and hit her head on the hardwood floor at the bottom!”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her! It was an accident!”
“But you didn’t call for help; you just ran away and left her there!” Hayley snapped accusingly.
Lenny nodded. “Yes, I panicked. I didn’t know what to do! This was the only place I knew where I could lie low for a while until the heat died down and I could sneak out of town without getting caught.”
“But how did we not see you come in? We had eyes on the front door all night, and the back door was locked from the inside.”
“I showed up when you were still setting up for the party; you had the back door open while you and Liddy and Mona were bringing in all the food. I waited until you went back to Mona’s truck for another load, and then I was able to slip in, without any of you noticing, and hide back here in Chef Romeo’s secret room.”
That was why Lenny never showed up on Randy’s video at any point during the party.
“I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to find me,” Lenny continued. “I didn’t know I had dropped Mrs. Beaumont’s wedding ring.” Lenny sniffed and wiped his nose with his index finger, tears pooling in his eyes. “I swear on my life, Hayley, I never meant to kill Mrs. Beaumont!”
“You didn’t.”
Lenny’s eyes widened in surprise. “What are you talking about? I saw her fall down the stairs and hit her head! There was blood!”
“You didn’t kill Clara Beaumont, Lenny. She’s recovering in the hospital. She may have a concussion, but she is going to live.”
A wave of relief washed over Lenny’s face. “Oh man, oh wow, I can’t tell you how much better that makes me feel . . .”
“Yes, you can rest easy. But what about Boris Candy?”
Lenny’s face went pale.
Hayley bravely took a step forward. “Did you murder him?”
Lenny began to slowly shake his head. “No . . . I . . .”
Hayley’s eyes zeroed in on the sledgehammer at Lenny’s side. She could make out traces of blood on it. “I can buy Mrs. Beaumont accidentally tripping and falling down the stairs, and I’m sure the police will as well. But explain to me how Mr. Candy accidentally ran his head into the flat edge of that sledgehammer, Lenny, because that one has me stumped.”
Lenny glanced at the sledgehammer, noticing the blood for the first time. He knew he was caught. He raised his eyes, staring at Hayley, his face full of alarm and desperation, like a scared rabbit suddenly trapped in a hunter’s cage.
That’s when he menacingly raised the sledgehammer over his head.
Chapter Twelve
“What are you going to do, Lenny, bash me in the back of the head too, just like you did to poor Boris Candy?” Hayley cried.
Gripping the sledgehammer and waving it around in the air, Lenny vigorously shook his head. “No, no, you make it sound like I wanted to kill him, but I didn’t. I had no choice!”
“Everyone has a choice, Lenny, and you made the wrong one,” Hayley said. “And right now you have another choice to make. What are you going to do with that sledgehammer?”
Hayley held her breath.
Lenny stopped waving the weapon around threateningly but kept holding it above his head, staring up at it. Then he slowly lowered it to his side.
Hayley felt relieved that she had been spared for now, but she was not going to take anything for granted. Her mind raced, desperate to come up with some kind of plan to escape this secret locked room.
“I can pretty much guess what happened next, Lenny,” Hayley said softly, trying not to sound too aggressive, which might set him off again. “You were hiding out here after running away from Clara Beaumont’s house, but you were hungry, you needed something to eat, and you probably didn’t want to use up your food supply so early on,” Hayley said, pointing to the shelf of canned goods above them. “On the other side of the wall, there was a party in full swing with lots of food, so you snuck out and snatched some pans of appetizers I had prepared when no one was around.”
Lenny nodded. “The food smelled really good, and I was starving so bad, I decided to take the risk. And it worked. Nobody saw me. But then I got thirsty, I had a limited supply of bottled water back here, so I decided to grab some sodas from the coolers in the storeroom. But I couldn’t get to them because those two little girls were pretending to be witches right next to the pantry. They would have spotted me the second I came out. So I stood behind the pantry wall, listening, waiting for them to finish up with their silly witch spells and return to the party. That’s when I heard Mr. Candy come in to see the girls playing, and he yelled at them and upset them. After he left, they cast some kind of nasty spell on him. T
hen finally, I heard them leave. They never had a clue I was right behind the pantry wall listening to them the whole time.”
“You figured it was safe to come out at that point to get your drinks, but then unexpectedly Mr. Candy returned . . .”
“Yeah, he came rushing in, like he was in a big hurry,” Lenny said.
“That’s because Mona’s son, Chet, had just spiked his hot chocolate with Ex-Lax,” Hayley explained. “He was running back here to find the bathroom since the two out front were occupied.”
“At first, I didn’t know who he was, in that evil clown getup.”
“But Mr. Candy recognized you, and you could not have him telling anyone you were here, because the police might find out and surround the place, and you’d be trapped—”
“He tried to get past me; he looked so frantic, I didn’t know he was rushing for the bathroom; I thought he was scared of me, knew what I had done, so I tried to stop him. There was a scuffle, and Mr. Candy started yelling. I wrestled him to the floor, tried to keep him quiet, begged him to stop making so much noise, but that just got him more upset and louder, and then he managed to squirm free. He tried to run, and that’s when I saw the sledgehammer someone left in the kitchen leaning up against the wall . . .”
“So you grabbed it and chased after Mr. Candy and hit him in the back of the head to stop him from alerting anyone to your presence,” Hayley said solemnly. “But Mr. Candy had no clue you had just robbed Clara Beaumont’s house, or injured her, or were on the run from the law. Nobody did, not until Bruce showed up after the party was over with the news that Clara Beaumont had regained consciousness and identified you. So you killed the poor man for no reason.”
“I . . . I didn’t know that . . .”
“You dragged his body into the walk-in freezer to hide it, but then you got an idea. Why not put on Mr. Candy’s Pennywise costume so no one else would recognize you. You could walk around the party undetected and stock up on more food for your extended stay.”
“I had no idea how long I would have to be holed up here; it could be weeks, maybe months. I couldn’t risk leaving too early when everybody was still looking for me . . .”
All the pieces were finally coming together.
“That’s why Mr. Candy was acting so strange around Sergio, after purposely trying to scare him earlier in the Pennywise costume, because it wasn’t Mr. Candy. It was you,” Hayley deduced. “After loading up and returning to this room, you were confident you had gotten away with it; nobody else saw you poking around. When Mr. Candy’s body was found, there would be no witness to point the finger at you. The focus would be on the other party guests. You were home free.”
“Until you found that damn ring,” Lenny spit out. He took some time collecting his thoughts, figuring out his next move before he spoke again. Finally, his eyes flicked back to Hayley. “I’m sorry, Hayley, you’ve always been real nice to me, but I can’t let you leave here and tell anyone where I am.”
He took a menacing step toward her. He was even more intimidating in the frightening clown costume. He backed her up against the wall, then reached out with his white-gloved hands and shoved her down on the lumpy cot. Then he sprang across the room, grabbed some rope off the shelf and began binding her hands and feet as Hayley frantically searched the room for some means of escape. Unfortunately, she was trussed up before she had the opportunity to formulate any kind of workable plan.
She was now Lenny’s prisoner.
“How long do you plan on keeping me here? My husband, my friends, they’re just on the other side of the pantry wall; they’re going to be searching for me.”
Lenny picked up a roll of duct tape and pressed a piece across Hayley’s mouth. “That’s why you’re going to stay nice and quiet here in the secret room. They call it that because nobody knows about it; it’s a secret. And I’m going to make sure it stays that way.”
Lenny bent down and lifted Hayley’s feet up on the cot so she was in a prone position. “Why don’t you get some rest? You’re going to be here a while. But I swear, Hayley, when I do leave here and get out of town, I promise I will send word to your family where they can find you.”
Hayley tried to say something, but her words were muffled underneath the duct tape.
“Since there’s going to be two of us living here, we’re going to need more food than what I’ve got stacked on the shelf. I think I saw another box of canned beans and vegetables in the storeroom. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”
He unbolted the lock on the door and hurried off.
Wait here?
Was he joking?
Where on earth could she go?
Hayley cranked her head around desperately.
There had to be some means of freeing herself.
Her eyes scanned the room, settling on the two burning candles bathing the room in a flickering orange light.
The flame.
It could burn through the ropes that tied her hands.
Hayley struggled to stand up, which was made all the more difficult with her hands bound behind her back and her feet tied together, but she managed, after a couple of tries, to remain upright without falling back down on the cot. She hopped over to one of the candles and spun around, dropping to her knees so her hands were on the same level as the burning candle. She stretched her arms out as far as they could go, wincing in pain, wishing she had paid more attention in the stretch class she had taken with Liddy that one time. The flame touched her outstretched finger and scalded her skin, causing her to emit a muffled yelp. She closed both hands into fists and prayed the flame would make contact with the rope and not her flesh. One of her fists accidentally bumped into the candle, nearly knocking it off the small table and onto the floor. She patiently tried again, and again, finally succeeding on the fourth attempt. She began to smell the smoke from the flame as it slowly burned through the ropes. She wrenched her wrists in opposite directions, feeling the rope start to loosen.
She was seconds away from freedom when Lenny suddenly appeared in the doorway of the room. “I smell something burning!” His eyes settled on Hayley trying to free herself. “What are you doing?”
He lunged across the room and roughly grabbed Hayley to stop her. Her hopes of escaping were dashed as he shoved her face-first up against the wall so he could inspect her hands, tied behind her back, to insure they were still secure.
Hayley craned her neck to see that, during the mêlée, the candle had been knocked off the table and onto the floor, where it rolled over on its side over to the cot, stopped by the army-issue gray blanket hanging down the side. The flame ignited the fabric, and the blanket caught fire, which quickly spread to the sheets and the mattress.
Hayley screamed through the duct tape over her mouth and made frantic gestures with her head toward the fire, trying to warn Lenny.
Satisfied Hayley was bound to his satisfaction, Lenny finally became aware of black smoke in the air and spun around to see the cot on fire. With Lenny distracted, Hayley seized the opportunity to propel herself away from the wall, crashing into Lenny’s body, which sent him flying across the room, tripping over his own two feet. He tried to grab the shelf to keep himself from falling, but the weight of his body dislodged the whole shelf from the wall. Stacks of canned food came raining down on him, smashing against his head until he was stretched out onto the floor, dazed and half-conscious.
As the flames grew, dancing up the wall above the cot, Hayley frantically tried screaming for help, but to no avail, not with the tape over her mouth and her hands and feet still tied.
She tried to wildly hop out of the room, but now the thickening black smoke threatened to overcome her. She felt light-headed, close to passing out. The whole building would soon be up in flames and destroyed.
She glanced down at Lenny.
He was still disoriented, rubbing his head, not fully aware that he too was about to succumb to smoke inhalation.
Then, suddenly, through the black smoke, Hayley saw
King Kong burst through the room, look around, and then fling his massive, hairy body on top of the burning cot, effectively smothering the flames until they were snuffed out, except for a few burning pieces of fake fur left on the gorilla suit that he pounded out with his giant paws, like an ape in the jungle emulating Tarzan’s cry by beating his chest.
Mona appeared in the doorway brandishing a fire extinguisher, which she used to spray white foam on the cot as well as Bruce’s gorilla costume, just to be safe.
Sergio rushed in and pulled the tape off Hayley’s mouth, then quickly began untying the ropes.
“Are you all right?” Sergio asked.
Hayley nodded as she coughed, waving away the last remnants of black smoke in the room, managing to choke out, “Yes, how . . . how did you find me?”
“We smelled smoke out in the dining room,” Sergio explained. “And then we all fanned out to see where it could be coming from. Bruce noticed the black smoke billowing out from underneath the pantry wall. That’s when he realized it was a door and not a wall. He followed the smoke down here to find you!”
“Thank you, King Kong!” Hayley gushed as she hugged Bruce, who was still inside his gorilla suit. “I always knew you were misunderstood.”
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Bruce said gently as he guided his wife toward the door, his eyes falling to Lenny, who was writhing and moaning on the floor. “We’ll leave Sergio to deal with him.”
