by P. K. Abbot
Rosalee fished out a tissue from her pocket, wiped her nose, and looked at Riley with bleary eyes. “In a way, they’re not wrong,” she said. “Lenny has been killing himself with meth for years.”
“Are you saying you’re okay with the finding of suicide?” Riley asked her.
Rosalee turned away from him and stared at her hands resting on the table. “Am I wrong,” she said, “for not pushing for an investigation? For not seeking justice for Lenny?”
Riley couldn’t find an answer for her.
“Lenny’s addiction changed him so much,” she said. “He was no longer the man I married. I don’t think he would ever want to harm us, but the meth made him do horrible things. In time, I think he would’ve killed me – and the kids too.”
She raised her head now and stared at Riley. “Am I wrong for wanting to leave everything as it is now?” she asked. Mascara smeared her face as tears ran freely from her eyes. “Am I wrong?” she asked again.
Riley turned away from her and looked out the window. Her children were chasing each other around the swing set in the bright sunshine. The boy was laughing and shouting, and the girl was squealing with delight. Riley turned back to Rosalee and looked at her. “You’re not wrong, Rosalee,” he said. “You’re not wrong at all.”
*****
Once in his car, Riley picked up his cell phone and called Sunny Bob Walker. They needed to meet, Riley said. Walker told him to come over right away.
When he arrived at the casino, Riley took the elevator to the top floor of the tower. Walker’s receptionist ushered him into his massive office suite, which covered the entire east side of the building. Its ceiling rose twenty-four feet above the floor, and floor to ceiling glass wrapped around the entire suite. In the bright sunshine Riley saw ships traveling up and down the coast for at least a mile out into the Atlantic.
Walker stood at his liquor bar, fixing a martini for himself when Riley walked in.
“Will you join me for a drink?” Walker asked.
“I can’t. I have tons to do today, and I don’t have time.”
“Not even to celebrate yesterday’s arrest, Riley?”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
Walker was shaking his cocktail with his back turned toward Riley. “Why are you here?” Walker asked.
“The cops found Lenny Myers’s body yesterday.”
Walker stopped mixing his drink and set the shaker on the bar.
“I spent the morning with Rosalee Myers,” Riley said. “The police department wanted me to ask her if she would accept a ruling of suicide in Lenny’s death.”
“Oh,” Walker replied. He was very still. He kept his back toward Riley and stared at the ocean. “Will there be an investigation?” Walker asked Riley.
“The police won’t pursue it if Rosalee agrees.”
“And what did Rosalee say?” Walker asked.
“As long as her life doesn’t change, she won’t ask for an investigation.”
“She’ll be fine,” Walker said. “She’ll still receive her monthly payment.”
Riley stared at Walker’s reflection in the window and was quiet for a few moments. “I never mentioned a monthly payment, Bob.”
Walker turned around now, raised his head, and stared into Riley’s eyes. “But you knew you wouldn’t have to mention the payment,” Walker said. “You knew I was involved, didn’t you?”
Riley simply nodded at him.
“At his arraignment, I could see Lenny was already killing himself with his addiction,” Walker said. “I knew that in time he would murder Rosalee too.”
“That’s what she said to me,” Riley said.
“When I saw Rosalee in the courtroom,” Walker said, “I knew she needed help, and I had the means to help her. I felt I had an obligation to help her.”
“By murdering her husband, Bob?”
“I had to act, Riley. If I didn’t, Rosalee’s life would be hell until Lenny eventually killed her.” Walker looked down at his hands now. “But I’ve accepted the responsibility for my action,” Walker said. “I’ve provided for Rosalee and her children every month since then.”
“You had Lenny killed, Bob. How did you compensate Lenny for what you did to him?”
Walker turned away from Riley and asked, “What are you going to do, Riley?”
Riley looked down at the floor and was quiet for a long moment. “I can’t help Lenny now,” Riley said at last, “but I’m not going to ruin Rosalee Myers’s life.”
Walker turned back and looked at Riley. “Thank you,” he said.
“I’m not doing it for you,” Riley replied. “I’m doing it for Rosalee.”
Walker nodded and turned away from him. He started mixing his martini again.
Chapter 21
Céline was smiling and humming softly to herself as she lit the gas under the large stock pot on her stove. She slid the potlid a quarter-inch to the side to keep the pot from boiling over. “I’ve got this,” she whispered.
She arranged a decanter of Chardonnay, two wine glasses, and hors d’oeuvres on a tray. Then she carried it all into her living room and placed it on the coffee table there.
When she saw her reflection in the room’s mirrored wall, she smiled. She wore a white summer dress with a cute halter top that flattered her shoulders and highlighted her tan. She turned sideways to look at the back of her figure. She liked the way her high heels accentuated her well-toned calves. Then she came closer to the mirror to examine her face. Her eyes were very bright. She was happier than she had been in days. She laughed to herself and drew a small bottle of perfume from the pocket in her dress. She put a dab of perfume at the base of her neck and on the inside of her wrists. “I’m ready now,” she said. Then she heard a knock at the front door.
She opened the door and saw Riley standing there. Seeing him took her breath away. There was no Members Only jacket tonight. He wore a perfectly tailored, light blue, Italian designer suit with a pale pink shirt and a hand-tied bowtie. His hair was cut short and neatly styled. And his face was clean shaven.
Her eyes sparkled when she saw him. She reached out and touched his baby-smooth cheek. “Oh, I shouldn’t have done that,” she giggled. “I’m… I’m so sorry,” she said as she started to withdraw her hand.
He caught her wrist before she could move her hand away from his face. “It’s fine,” he said and smiled at her.
“Come in,” she said as she pulled him into the living room. Her eyes were still wide with surprise, and she was beaming at him. “What… What brought all this about?” She gestured with her hand from the top of his head to his shoes, and back again.
Riley looked at her and smiled before he answered. “Things have changed so much,” he said. “I thought it was time for me to change too. I decided to risk it.” They grinned at each other. “Do you like it?” he asked.
“Yes. Yes, I love it,” she said. She was smiling broadly at him, but he noticed she had tears welling in her slate-blue eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
She sniffled and wiped the tears from the corner of her eye. “Oh, nothing is wrong really. I was terrified that I had lost Nathaniel forever, but you found him and saved him. I’m just so grateful that you did. Everything is perfect now.”
Riley looked about the apartment. “Where is Nathaniel?” he asked.
“Oh, he isn’t here.” Celine looked at Riley and chuckled softly to herself. “When I told him that I wanted to cook a special meal for you tonight, he asked Ginny to let him eat with her and Jack. Ginny said okay and then invited him to stay the night with them too. So, Nathaniel isn’t here.”
She gave Riley a sad half-smile filled with disappointment. He reached out, held her hands in his, and said, “It’s okay.”
She sniffled, wiped the tears from her red eyes again, and smiled at Riley. “Come on,” she said brightly. “Let’s drink some wine and enjoy our hors d’oeuvres before dinner.”
She brought Rile
y over to the couch next to the coffee table. He sat at the near end of the couch as she poured Chardonnay into the two glasses. She handed his glass to him and carried hers to the other end of the couch. There she slipped her feet out of her high heels and tucked her legs under her as she sat on the couch.
“What shall we drink to?” she asked.
“Why not to Nathaniel?”
“Yes. To Nathaniel!” she replied. “Gone but not forgotten. Gone but always loved. Gone every time I try to cook a nice meal for him.”
Riley gave her an uneasy smile and sipped his wine as he watched her drain her glass with the toast.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“No. Don’t apologize. I can understand how disappointing it is for you.”
“Thank you, but I don’t think you can realize how it feels to be so invested in someone. Sometimes it hurts so much,” she said. Then she refilled her wine glass.
Riley turned away from her and stared at the floor for a few moments while he collected his thoughts. “I… umm… I don’t know how to say this,” he began.
“Just say it.”
“When Marcus took Nathaniel that day, I realized I was missing an essential part of my life. I had no meaning or purpose in my life. All those years of avoiding risk and playing it safe left me with nothing. I realized that I am missing the one thing that can give meaning to my life and make me happy.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“You.”
“What?”
“It’s you, Céline. You make me happy. You and Nathaniel give me a purpose in life.”
The color drained from her face, and she stared dumbfounded at him.
“I’d like to spend a lot more time with you and with Nathaniel,” he said.
“Are you talking about friends with benefits?” she asked.
He looked at her and smiled. “No. Just friends,” he said. “I’d like to spend more time with you and get to know you better. I’d like to help you with Nathaniel if you want me to. And, if we hit it off, I’d like to try to build a life together.”
As she listened to him, her face flushed. She picked up her Chardonnay and drained her glass again. “From the first moment I looked into your kind eyes, Raphael Riley, I hoped that this day would come.”
“This day?”
“Yes. The day I run out of excuses for not loving you.” Then she walked over to him and sat on his lap. She held his head in her hands and smiled at him as she kissed him. Their warm breaths mingled as they kissed. He held her tight and trailed kisses along her neck until she moaned softly in his arms. He inhaled the intoxicating scent of her perfume warmed by her body. He looked up at her and saw that her eyes were very bright. He smiled and drew his lips very close to hers. She parted her lips to kiss him again when suddenly they both jumped.
A harsh metallic clanging came from the kitchen. “Oh God!” Celine cried as she jumped off Riley’s lap and ran barefoot into the kitchen. Riley rushed after her and arrived to see the pot lid on the tiled floor and a crab drop down from the stovetop and scuttle sideways across the floor and sidle under the kitchen stove.
Riley took a long wooden spoon from the kitchen counter and poked it at the spot where the crab had disappeared under the stove. In a moment he pulled it out with the angry crab pinching the end of the spoon. Riley grabbed the crab from the rear and pulled it away from the spoon. Then he tossed the crab back into the pot of water.
“Oh, I can’t believe this. I’ve got crabs crawling all over my kitchen,” Céline wailed.
Riley looked into the pot and asked her, “How many did you have?”
“I bought six for tonight.”
“Well,” Riley said, “the good news is that only two had escaped. We need to catch just one more.” Then Riley turned to her and smiled as he continued. “But the bad news is that the escapee had to climb over all the others to get out of the pot. So, he is undoubtedly the meanest and angriest one of the bunch.”
When he turned back to her, he saw that she was just staring into the distance.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I feel so stupid,” she said. “Ginny told me how to cook the crabs, but I didn’t have the heart to dump them into boiling water. I put them into cold water and lit the flame under the pot.”
Riley grinned at her. “So, let me get this straight,” he said as he reached for her hand. “You thought they preferred to be slowly boiled alive?”
“I didn’t think it through,” she huffed. She pulled her hand away from him and turned her back to him.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to anger you.”
When she looked at him again, she started screaming. ”Ow! Ow, ow!” she yelled. The missing crab had charged out from under the dishwasher and clamped onto her bare toe. She was hopping about on one foot kicking out with the foot that the angry crab attached. On the fourth fling, the crab lost its grip and shot across the room into the refrigerator. It landed on its back on the floor where Riley scooped it up and dropped it back into the pot of water.
When he turned back to her, Céline was bent over examining her red toe. “Here, let me look at that for you,” he said. “May I?” he asked as he put his hands on her hips and sat her on the kitchen table. He knelt on the floor in front of her and took her injured foot in his hand. “Well, there’s no blood or broken skin, but it must sting like hell.”
“Yes, it does,” she said.
Riley walked over to the kitchen sink, soaked a dish cloth in cold water, and came back to her. He pressed the cloth against her injured toe and asked, “How does that feel?”
“Much better,” she said. Then she quickly drew in her breath and pointed. “Oh, they’re trying to escape again.”
Riley looked where she pointed, and he saw a crab claw edging above the lip of the pot. He walked over to the stove, picked up the wooden spoon, and pushed the crab back into the water. He turned off the flame under the pot, retrieved the pot lid from the kitchen floor, and set it on top of the large stock pot. Then he filled a smaller pot with water and set that on the flat stock pot lid.
“There. The added weight will hold down the lid and keep the crabs inside the pot,” he said. “You don’t want to do anymore cooking tonight, do you?”
She shook her head no.
Riley smiled at her and said, “Let’s leave the crabs enjoy their spa vacation for tonight. Tomorrow morning I’ll come back and carry the whole pot down to Ginny’s. She’ll give them the rude awakening that they deserve, and we can all have a nice lunch together. What do you think?”
Céline looked very disappointed but gave him a weak smile. “I think that will be fine,” she said. “I lost my appetite tonight anyway.”
“Do you feel well enough to put on some comfortable shoes and go out with me?” he asked.
She nodded yes to him.
“Then I have an idea,” he said. “Let’s drive up to Cozy’s comedy club in North Wildwood. We can enjoy a few laughs and have a few drinks. And, if you’re feeling up to it, we can do a little dancing and have a light supper. How does that sound?”
“That sounds like fun, but maybe for another night.” As she slid off the table, she stared at him with her smoldering slate blue eyes and kissed him. “I have a better idea for tonight,” she said. She smiled at him and tugged the end of his bowtie until it unfurled around his neck. Then she took him by the hand and led him down the hall and into her bedroom.
There, for the rest of that night and into the morning, Céline and Riley took it slow. They took it exquisitely slow.
A Word from the Author
I hope you enjoyed reading Monster’s Dream. If you did, please take a moment to recommend or gift it to a friend and to leave a review. Your review doesn’t need to be more than a few words, but it would make an immense difference in my book’s popularity, and I would be very grateful.
You can post your review here:
amazon.com/dp/B0849W9SSF
Than
ks again for your support.
– P. K. Abbot
About the Author
P. K. Abbot writes character-rich thrillers. His Jersey Murder Series are exciting crime novels with very twisty endings.
Before writing full time, he had a fascinating occupation. For twenty-five years he worked as a professional buyer in two different industries. In his career, he met hundreds of remarkable people and traveled to Europe and throughout the United States.
On February 21, 2011, he experienced a life-changing event. On that day he went into V-fib — ventricular fibrillation. He would have died that afternoon, but his implanted defibrillator discharged seven times within two minutes that day. After the fourth intensive shock to his heart, he questioned if he would have the stamina to survive the ordeal, but survive he did. He spent the next thirteen days in cardiac intensive care in the hospital and the following four months in recovery at home.
After that experience, he decided to devote himself to writing, and he has been writing full time ever since.
He grew up around Trenton, New Jersey and attended high school and college in Philadelphia, where he studied writing, languages, and history. He also served for six years as a military policeman in the United States Army National Guard.
Today he is the proud father of two talented young women, and he lives in a small town in southern New Jersey with his wife and dozens of imaginary characters.
Please visit P. K. Abbot’s website to receive special offers, exclusive bonus content, and news about upcoming new releases.
PKAbbot.com
