In the Shadow of Angels

by Donnie J Burgess

  Could he call the police and report seeing some unknown, masked assailant attacking her? Any cursory investigation would show only his DNA on the body. With all the evidence pointing to him, it would surely be a murder conviction anyway. This time there would be no question that it would be first degree. Moreover, added counts for hindering and obstruction.

  Could he just leave the body and run? He had checked in as Leonardo Dicaprio, which was good, so no one would know he was here, but there was enough fresh evidence on her body to put him with her very shortly before her death. Even if he stripped her naked and cleaned her with alcohol swabs, there was still going to be enough evidence in her mouth to put her with him in the moments before her death. And even if by some miracle they weren’t able to get usable DNA from her body, there was still a bartender that was going to testify that he saw him with her in the bar that night and that he said, very coldly, ‘I’m going to have to kill the bitch.’ Which led, again, to a conviction for murder and definitely in the first degree.

  They couldn’t find the body. That’s all there was to it.

  While he hated the realization, that was all there was left.

  How long had it been since she had fallen? A few minutes he guessed. His mind was racing. The police often respond to the location of 911 calls even when they are made by accident. Would they be coming? If so, how long did he have? Had anyone else seen her against the fence yet? Time was the enemy. If he was going to act, he must do so quickly.

  Devin struggled to keep a throttle on his racing mind. Working as an attorney, he knew that fast often led to careless and that was something he couldn’t afford. He ran to the bed and stripped it back to expose the fitted sheet. He pulled the fitted sheet off the bed, rolled it up and stuffed it into his pants. It made a hugely noticeable bulge, but with all that he was about to do, that would be the least of his concerns. He made the bed up quickly with the other sheet and comforter. He took a last, quick look around the room to make sure there was nothing else that might belong to him or Jez there. Once satisfied that there wasn’t, he grabbed her broken heel, which he left on the beside the phone when he placed the call, closed the door and walked quickly down the stairs to her body.

  When he reached Jez, he took a quick look at the windows surrounding the pool. He saw no signs of anyone looking on. All the curtains appeared to be closed soundly. He stuffed the broken heel onto her foot so that he wouldn’t have to carry it, then he put his right arm around her waist and flopped her left arm over his shoulders and around his neck. He picked her up. Even being so athletic and even though Jez was a small woman, supporting the dead weight wouldn’t be possible for long. He only had to make it a hundred yards to reach his car, but he couldn’t just run for it. He walked slowly, calmly, struggling against the weight. As he walked, he spoke to her as if she was drunk.

  “Come on, honey, not much further to go.”

  Step. Step. Step.

  “See, the car is right over there. Just another minute and we’ll be there.”

  Step. Step. Step.

  “Are you going to be sick? Do we need to stop?”

  Step. Step. Step.

  “You can make it, dear. I bet you’ll never drink that much again, will you?”

  Step. Step. Step.

  “I have to open the gate now. Can you stand on your own? No? Okay, lean against me then.”

  Devin used his free hand to open the gate, which thankfully did not require a key to open from the inside, and made his way through.

  “See, you made it to the car. I told you that you could.”

  Devin fumbled to remove the car keys from his right pocket with his left hand so that he wouldn’t have to set her down. By now he was straining just to keep her up and, if he did have to set her down, he didn’t think he would be able to pick her up again without it looking like he was throwing around a corpse. Once the trunk was opened, he pulled the fitted sheet from his pants and spread it across the bottom. Satisfied that every inch of carpet was covered, he pushed Jez in on top of the sheet and used the excess to cover her up. He spoke to her one final time, “You can sleep now. We’ll be home soon.”

  Chapter 4

  Beth cautiously opened the door. Even then, she opened it only a fraction of an inch. She wasn’t even sure what she was afraid of. It’s not as if anyone ever saw or heard anything at The Place anyway. She was trying to be quiet so Jezebel wouldn’t hear her. She just wanted to see that look of defeat on her face.

  The next few moments seemed to happen in an instant…

  *****

  …And Beth was back in her car, on the road. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but the word away was definitely involved. In her mind, she started going back over it all, trying to piece together what happened. It was only 11pm now, so that meant that less than two hours passed since she was at the bar with Devin. How could everything have gone so horribly wrong in such a short amount of time?

  They were at the bar to celebrate. Devin just finished another high profile case and took home another huge check as a result. It was the first time they went out since she caught him with that whore Jezebel Anders. Like a typical man, Devin completely misread the situation and invited BrentandJimmy along. She did her best to tolerate them, but doing so was a huge undertaking. The BrentandJimmy monster wore thin faster than dollar-store underwear.

  She knew Devin was trying though. He came with her to see Dr. Stephens every week since the incident and while Dr. Stephens couldn’t give her any details of his private sessions with Devin, the Hippocratic Oath prevented that, he did confirm that Devin was keeping those appointments as well. He seemed genuinely remorseful about what happened with Jezebel and willing to do whatever he had to do to make it up to her. Flowers, candy, love letters, it was as if he were courting her in college all over again. She forgave him on the outside, but inside she remained guarded.

  On the one hand, she was glad it was with Jezebel Anders. She had a reputation for breaking unbreakable men. She was beautiful, to be sure, but she used her body the way a Julliard musician uses their instrument: Every motion, vibration, touch and sound, no matter how minute, was an integral part of the piece, only in her case, the piece was something more primal. She could move and weave her body and words into a symphony of temptation that was nearly impossible to resist. Yes, she often told herself, at least it was Jezebel Anders.

  On the other hand, why had it been Jezebel Anders? Her stock and trade was sleeping her way through the very rich and very powerful. First the city council, then local judges, then on to state council. Her little black book read like a who’s who of the political elite. How did Devin, an ambulance chaser – a damn good one, but an ambulance chaser nonetheless - make it onto her radar? Devin told her that after she slept with him, she started asking him for legal advice in regards to a released video she was not being compensated for. It seemed a thin reason to be resorting to sexual blackmail.

  And that was the bitch of it for Beth. She couldn’t believe Jezebel would be playing her game on such a small time attorney. Especially since his scope of expertise was accident and injury law, not copyright law. Let alone digital copyright law, which was still a hugely jumbled mess - like ten skeins of yarn all wadded up into a big ball - each of them separate, but somehow intertwining. There were so many contradictory and ever-changing laws regarding digital copyright that even lawyers who specialize in it have trouble keeping it all straight. Surely, she couldn’t think that Devin was uniquely equipped to handle it, but her web somehow fell on him and she assumed control of him like an old puppet-master.

  Beth just found this too unbelievable. That led to her insecurities. Maybe Jezebel was ready to hang up the puppet strings and settle down. Devin was a good-looking man and he was wildly successful. Compared to the crypt keepers that Jezebel normally fucked for personal gain, Devin was a knight-in-shining-armor of Disney-esque proportion. And while she hated to admit it, Beth wasn’t sure she could win any head to head contest w
ith Jezebel. She did work out religiously, a luxury afforded to her by Devin’s insistence that his wife shouldn’t have to work. She used every peeler, scraper, mask and lotion in Bath & Body Works to keep her skin soft and silky, but Jezebel managed to have skin that was every bit as smooth, a body that was every bit as firm and to hear the stories, absolutely nothing of a sexual nature was off limits. Nothing. Jezebel was Ginger and she was Mary Anne.

  If it was Jezebel’s intention to steal away Devin, Beth wasn’t sure that she would be able to stop it. The love Beth had to offer was the traditional companion for life type of love, while the love that Jezebel had to offer was a dirty, sinful, nasty thing that she couldn’t equal even if she wanted to, and she didn’t want to. Obviously, that is what he was looking for, at least once, and she couldn’t compete with that.

  When she saw Jezebel enter the bar, Beth decided not to go home. She went and sat in her car in the parking lot. There she sat, crying her eyes out, for the next ten minutes. She knew it was going to happen again.

  Jezebel wasn’t the type of girl to go hang out at O’Halligan’s Pub. O’Halligan’s was where you went with the guys to down some pints of Guinness and play some darts, not where a vixen like Jezebel would go to cool off. She was much more at home in a trendy club with a bizarrely extraneous name like Allure or Vision or something. If Jezebel was in O’Halligan’s pub, it was because she wanted something and Beth assumed that something was Devin.

  Beth was still in her car when Jezebel came out only a few minutes later. The brevity of her stay inside the bar made her more sure she went in with the sole purpose of asking someone to meet her somewhere. And for what she was sure was going to happen, the only somewhere they could possibly be meeting was The Place.

  Beth’s battle with her own insecurity had gotten the better of her. She drove to The Place and parked across the street. Maybe it’s not Devin, she thought to herself, maybe she is going to meet someone else. She wasn’t sure if she believed that or not. She hoped that. She wanted that, but you know what they say about wanting in one hand…

  Beth was sitting outside The Place when Jezebel’s Fiero arrived. She knew that Jezebel was meeting someone there because she went directly to the room entrance gate without stopping by the check in. Beth watched her standing there for a couple of minutes. The cool, October air was getting to Jezebel, who was wearing only that slut-in-the-box outfit that didn’t quite cover anything. Beth was trying not to hate her. She didn’t want to be trying not to hate her. She wanted to be furious, but Dr. Stephens clearly said that Jezebel wasn’t the enemy and wasn’t to blame. He told her she must place the blame squarely on Devin, not that she put much stock in what that bastard had to say anymore. But as she watched her standing there, shivering against the cold, ass hanging out, seemingly inviting every pervert in town to have a go, Beth lost control of her logic and then her body.

  She got out of her car and started to walk purposefully up to Jezebel. She was about to do what Dr. Stephens sternly told her not to do - confront the whore who wrecked her marriage. If she were capable of rational thought at that moment, she would not have been proud, but her cyclone of emotion wouldn’t be stopped until it spent its destructive force.

  “Why can’t you just leave him alone?” Beth shouted as she neared Jezebel.

  “Oh,” Jezebel said, disinterested, “it’s you.”

  Jezebel shifted her weight from one leg to the other, “You’re Devin’s girlfriend, Right? Bernice or something?”

  “You know God damn well I’m his wife,” Beth said, almost on her, “and you know God damn well that my name is Bethany!”

  “Whatever,” Jezebel said, still not engaging. She leaned forward a bit and turned her head to look for headlights coming up the street.

  Jezebel’s lack of interest was only fueling the rage of the Beth’s cyclone.

  “You could take that foul, cum-dumpster of yours and rub it on any man in town. Why does it have to be my husband?” That was certainly the only time the phrase cum-dumpster had left Beth’s lips.

  “Look, Bernadette,” Jezebel said, still not making eye contact. “I’m done with Devin. I just needed to meet him here to complete some unfinished business.”

  “It’s Bethany!” She screamed, only inches from her face now. “If you’re going to destroy his life, you could at least get the names right!”

  “Rage much?” Jezebel asked.

  Beth was bouncing from foot to foot, her hands shaking like a freshman getting ready for a fight, but not sure how to start it. Her body a mass of adrenaline, rage and fear. She wasn’t sure what her next move was.

  “What business could you possibly have with him?”

  “Well, Bethany, frankly that’s none of your business.” She exaggerated the pronunciation of her name.

  “He’s my husband! If you have business with him, that’s every bit my business!”

  “Look, Bethany,” she said, again exaggerating the pronunciation, “I am going to be completely honest with you here. Do you think you can handle that?”

  “That would be a refreshing change.”

  “You don’t know me, bitch!” Jezebel snapped, “You’ve got no right questioning my honesty.”

  Beth’s unused spike of adrenaline was starting to fade just a bit and she was finding herself in a situation for which she couldn’t find a reasonable way out, but Jezebel was right. She had never spoken to her before tonight, so she hadn’t yet had the chance to lie to her.

  “You’re right. I have to give you that.”

  “Before I tell you, let me assure you that you don’t want to know,” Jezebel said, honestly. “If I tell you, it’s only going to make it worse.”

  Beth stared at her, unblinking.

  “So, a question for you, sweetie.” Jezebel said, patronizingly. “Can you walk away?”

  “Just tell…”

  Jezebel cut her off. “I am guaranteeing you that it will make it worse. Guaranteeing.”

  She paused for a moment, looking into Beth’s eyes. Even through the rage, she could see just how naïve and trusting Beth was. She was the angel to Jezebel’s devil. Jezebel let her guard down for just a moment, hoping to get through to her woman to woman and not mistress to wife.

  “Look, it isn’t worth it. He really loves you, you know. Even I can’t break that spell. Trust me. I’ve tried. After I talk to him tonight, neither of you will ever see me again. I am guaranteeing that as well.”

  She continued looking into Beth’s eyes.

  “I would stake my life on every word.”

  Beth remained silent.

  “Now, knowing that, can you walk away? I’ll tell you if you really want to know and it will probably destroy your marriage. Or you can walk away now knowing that neither of you will ever see nor hear from me again after tonight.”

  “Please just tell me,” Beth said meekly, her anger now turning to tears. “I have to know.”

  “I wish you hadn’t made me tell you this.” Jezebel paused, for the first time pitying Beth, “your insecurity is going to destroy you, you know.”

  Jezebel shifted her weight back to her other foot, “I’m carrying his baby. I’m just meeting him here to get money for an abortion.”

  Every word Jezebel spoke was true. Nothing could have cut her deeper. Beth and Devin tried many times to have a child, but Beth was not able to carry. They talked of adoption before, but agreed that if they were not able to produce a child of their own they would simply not have children. It crushed Beth, whose vision of a perfect life always included two little boys and one little girl, but Devin took it every bit as badly. He never spoke of it, knight-in-shining-armor that he was, but she could see how crestfallen he was when he heard the news. It was as if the light behind his eyes went out.

  After fucking this common whore just one time, she could give him a child and she was going to kill it.

  The rage was back - completely unrestrained.

  “So you’re a dirty whore and a liar,
too!” Beth took a deep breath before continuing her rant, “I’m sorry your daddy dressed up like Santa Clause before he raped you, but your oh-pitiful-me bullshit isn’t going to work on me!”

  It was a rage like Beth never felt and it was making her say things she never said before. “Why can’t you just start cutting yourself, or sell videos shoving bigger and bigger things up your ass like the other worthless whores? Why do you have to lie about being pregnant? How many men have you lured up here tonight with that garbage?”

  Beth took a closed-fisted swing at Jezebel. Jezebel, who had been in her share of scrapes, dodged it easily. In one motion, she grabbed Beth by the shoulders, pushed her to the ground, pinned her arms with her knees and sat on her chest. Any hint of the pity or compassion, now gone.

  “It was your choice, you stupid little cunt,” Jezebel said in a low growl, her guard back with an angry force. “I told you that you didn’t want to know, but you insisted and then you have the audacity to say those things. And to take a swing at me?”

  Jezebel laughed an evil little laugh.

  “Just so you know, I really am pregnant and it is definitely his. I haven’t lured anyone else up here. I know he told you he wore a rubber, but he lied. Ask him. I bet he’ll tell you the truth now.”

  Jezebel paused for a moment, her eyes piercing Beth’s through the tears. “And you shouldn’t have taken a swing at me. Just for that I’m going to fuck him.” She laughed again. “I’m going to fuck him like I’ve never fucked anyone before. I’m going to show him what it’s like to be with a real woman just one more time before I send him home to your useless ass. You made that happen, you insecure, barren, prudish little cunt and I’m going to think of you while I do it.”