“Mrs. Manning,” June says, like whispering a prayer.
“My wife June,” David says, knowing his have all been answered. Three bedrooms down the hallway, another couple makes life-changing plans.
“Three murders April? Do you think he’ll do it?”
“Of course he will. It’s his job—Mr. Parker’s a hit man. It’ll just cost another thirty thousand dollars that’s all.”
April walks to a corner of the room where a large television hangs on the wall and sits in one of two recliners facing it, May follows suit.
“Poor David, I actually like him, is it really necessary?” May says.
“You saw June today, if we only send him to prison she’ll don a shroud and wait for him forever. If he’s dead, she’ll mourn, but she’ll move on.”
“First father, then Carlo, and now David, it seems like a bit much April.”
“Many have killed more for less. It’s not just the money now though, it’s June. She’s about to throw her life away on one man when the three of us can have any man we choose. She belongs with us, not David.”
“You’re right of course, still it’s a damn shame. I never even got to touch David.”
April smiles. “If you’d like, I could have Mr. Parker bring you a souvenir.”
May makes a face. “A souve—oh April that’s disgusting. But, just out of curiosity…how big a souvenir would it be?”
April holds her hands up and spreads them apart.
“Really? Like I said before, a damn shame. When are we meeting Carlo?”
“Tomorrow, I called and said we’d meet him at the bungalow. I’m also giving him another envelope with the new instructions for Mr. Parker.”
“How soon will Mr. Parker…go to work?”
“Tomorrow night while we’re eating dinner, father will be taken care of, then Mr. Parker will meet Carlo for the new instructions and get rid of him as well.”
“So soon?” May asks, while pushing the button that reclines her chair, she then activates the massage feature, the chair now emits a low pulsating hum.
“Why wait? We can’t take the chance that David and June won’t do something common like elope. The four of us have plans to go out together tomorrow night. It’s the perfect opportunity, by the time we arrive home poor father will be dead, even better, June will be our alibi.”
“What about David? When does he get his?”
“When we get home they’ll be an urgent message waiting to draw him to that cruddy little apartment of his that June stopped at today. When he gets there, Mr. Parker will kill him and plant the murder weapon. The police will assume a falling out among thieves and we’ll get our inheritance.”
“This is moving quickly all of a sudden. Poor father, he should have never threatened us with disinheritance.”
“It just sped things up May, remember, grandfather didn’t die until he was eighty-eight-years-old. I never had any intention of waiting another decade or more. Father’s had a good life, he even lived long enough to see his precious June bug again. What’s left for him really? Senility? Heart attacks? Strokes? No, we’re really doing him a favor.”
“David’s a young man, what’s your rationale for killing him?” May asks, teasing her sister.
April looks at her with cold eyes. “David Manning is in my way.”
22
Saturday, June 7th, 9:33 a.m.
Carol gawks at June’s outstretched hand. “Oh my God, look at the size of that diamond! Davey it’s so beautiful, oh June I’m so happy for you.”
“Thank you Carol, now we’ll really be sisters when we go shopping.”
“Davey couldn’t have found a nicer girl to marry June. You really are special honey and I love you.”
“I love you too Carol.”
The two women rise from their seats at Carol’s kitchen table and hug, they then separate and wipe away tears of joy.
“Carol, June has something she wants to ask you.” David says.
Carol retakes her seat. “What is it?”
“I’d like you to be my maid of honor.”
“Wow, really June, I’m flattered honey, thanks.”
“Thank you, David also wants Al to be his best man.”
“Davey, I’m sure Al will be glad to do it.”
“He’s the best man I know, so why not?” David says.
“What about your sisters? Are they going to be bridesmaids?” Carol asks.
“I hope so, we haven’t asked them yet, you’re the first person we’ve told.”
“Really? I feel so honored that you chose to tell me first.”
“We’re having dinner with the girls at the country club tonight, we’ll ask them to be bridesmaids then.” David says.
“Carol…what do you think of my sisters?”
“June this is a happy occasion, let me answer that on another day, OK?”
“It’s all right. I know you don’t like them. I want to apologize to you for the way they…went after Al.”
“Never apologize for anyone else’s behavior. I know you can’t control your sisters. Al and I had a big laugh about it all after we got home that night. Your sisters are very beautiful and years younger than I am. If Al can resist them then I have little to worry about.”
“They just like men a lot.” June says.
“Yes.” Carol says. “That’s one way to look at it.”
“Enough about April and May, we have to set a wedding date.” David says.
“Didn’t you guys meet on September 15th?” Carol asks.
June takes David’s hand in hers. “Yes, that’s when I found David.”
“That date is a little over three months away, that’s enough time to organize a wedding, what do you think?”
“I like it. June what do you think?” David says.
“Yes, our anniversary, but that day seems like a lifetime ago doesn’t it?”
“Everything before you is a lifetime ago.”
“So, do you guys have your date?”
David and June look at each other and speak in unison.
“That’s our day.”
8:14 p.m.
Blake enters his study and settles behind the desk. He then turns on his computer to check stock quotations while reaching into a bottom drawer for one of his forbidden Cuban cigars.
Why the hell do I sneak these things? This is my house, I should smoke where and when I want. Yes, and if I did Simon would tell Dr. Richards all about it. I swear that man is like a mother hen.
After a few puffs of the Cohiba, Blake reaches back into the drawer and brings out a bottle of Scotch and a shot glass. June’s news about her engagement has made Blake happier than he’s ever been.
Might as well go all the way with my vices. Hell, it’s a special night, I should celebrate. June bug back from the dead and soon to be married. And the way her and David spend so much time in their bedroom it won’t be long until I’m a grandfather. God I’m so damn happy. These are Blake’s thoughts as he leans back in his chair—and they are his last.
The 9mm. slug hits him in the back of his skull, severing his brain stem. Blake’s body lies slumped in the chair. The man who fired the silenced shot walks out from the shadow of the drapes and over to the desk where he pushes Blake’s body with his foot, the corpse slides unceremoniously onto the floor behind the desk. The man then moves over to a potted plant in a corner of the room and swivels its base in a counterclockwise fashion.
The plant moves aside to reveal a floor safe. The man removes from the safe over one hundred thousand in cash and fifty thousand in bearer bonds.
One last look around the room and the man shuts off the computer and taps out the cigar. He turns out the lights and then exits by the unlocked window he entered through. Mr. Parker has just begun his night’s work.
8:43 p.m.
Robert “Carlo” Anderson sits in his car in the employee parking lot of the Westchester County Country Club and chuckles to himself in self-satisfied glee.
When he
opened the large manila envelope and thirty thousand dollars fell into his lap he whooped so loudly that some of his fellow employees had paused on the way to their cars to look at him oddly. Carlo gave them a big smile and an OK hand signal and then proceeded to drive and park in the back section of the lot.
Thirty thousand dollars with the promise of another thirty thousand to come, and one third of it was all Carlo’s. Carlo had found his cash cow, two of them, and he was going to milk them for the rest of his life.
I knew I was right to take this job. I knew it would make me rich. This isn’t the way I thought I’d get there, but what the hell, money’s money.
Fresh from his disastrous attempt at becoming a millionaire day trader, Robert had taken the job as pool boy at the country club in order to meet and seduce rich women. Why not? He thought. He was a good-looking guy, and at thirty-four, he still had an athletic build. So Robert Anderson of Queens, New York, once more reinvented himself and became Carlo the pool boy in Westchester County.
Things didn’t quite work out the way “Carlo” had envisioned. For one thing, there were very few hot, young, club members. Most of the women who used the pool were fat, middle-aged and ugly. Still, the occasional tryst with one of them did produce a little folding money in the form of an obscenely large tip. Then came the day that Carlo spotted one of the hottest women he had ever seen. She came walking toward him from his right wearing the smallest bikini it was possible to wear and not be naked. Something caught his eye and as he turned his head, he also saw her coming toward him from his left.
Carlo met the Davenports.
April and May flirted with him, but only to tease. He was their poolside plaything. Let’s drive the pool boy crazy with lust until he dares to touch one of us and we get him fired. That was their game and Carlo had seen their type before. Still, he might as well play along, you never know, sometimes fortune smiles upon you.
One day he was telling May a story about his pre-Carlo days in Brooklyn. That was Robert’s wise guy phase. He was Bobby the pick, a smalltime crook who could pick any lock, well some locks, actually not many at all, but it was his entry to hang out with the real wise guys. That was how Carlo knew Aldo.
May showed a genuine interest in getting in contact with a hit man. She also slipped Carlo a thousand dollar finder’s fee. Carlo set-up the contact, he would be the go between so that customer and contractor never had to meet.
Mr. Parker got twenty thousand for a hit, half up front, the other half paid after the kill. Carlo told the Davenports the price was thirty thousand. Why not? A thousand dollar finder’s fee was nothing. So now Carlo sits in his car with thirty thousand dollars in his lap and ten of it is all his.
Two more hits, I wonder who they are? I’ll just take a peek this time.
As Carlo unseals the envelope with the new instructions, his passenger door opens and a man gets in. The man is well-dressed and has brown eyes and brown hair with a thin moustache.
“Hey buddy, who the hell are you?”
“Mr. Anderson, I’m Mr. Parker, it is a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Mr. Par…Parker? What are you doing here? I’m supposed to pass this on to Aldo and then he passes it on to you.”
“I thought it was time we got to know each other, I see you have my new instructions. I also see that you opened the envelope for me.”
“I…I was just curious.”
“Like the cat?” Parker asks, as he takes the envelope, and the money, from Carlo.
“Huh?” Carlo answers, not really listening, he watches with pain as his money vanishes.
“Never mind,” Parker says, then he reads the instructions by the light of a tiny flashlight he produces. “My my, the girls have an active night planned for me; I’d best get busy.”
“You know about April and May?”
“I make it a point to know who I’m dealing with, you can’t be too careful.”
“I know they want their old man dead.”
“Their ‘old man’ is dead. I left him less than an hour ago.”
“Who’re the other two hits on?”
“You are curious aren’t you? Well, there’s no harm in telling you. The third man they want dead is a David Manning.”
“They just showed up for dinner with a guy named David, I bet it’s him.”
“A Last Supper, is it a party of thirteen Robert?”
“Thirteen? No there’s just the four of them.”
“Ah, I see.” Parker says, as he talks he reaches into a side pocket and wraps his right hand around a gun.
“It was weird though,” Carlo says.
“In what way?”
“There are three twins tonight. Some long lost sister, June Davenport, and she’s just as hot as April and May too, only nicer.”
“Very interesting, thank you for that information Robert, now I must get back to work.”
“Wait! You never told me who the second hit was on.”
“Oh, it’s you.” Parker says, he takes the small gun from his pocket and shoots Carlo through the heart. Carlo’s body twitches in a spasm of death as the left side of his head slams against the driver’s side window, leaving the window with a web-like crack running down its middle.
An acrid odor permeates the car from the smoke of the gun as Parker shoves Carlo into the back seat.
A short time later, Parker dumps Carlo’s body and the untraceable gun into a shallow grave off a dirt road. He consults the new instructions again and memorizes them exactly, next, he burns them in the car’s ashtray.
After arriving in Greenwich Village, Parker dials the number April supplied using a cell phone he purchased on the streets.
Three rings later the phone is answered by Simon. “Good evening, Davenport residence, Simon speaking, how may I help you?”
“Hello, this is Sergeant Tompkins of the New York City Police Department. I’m trying to contact a David Manning, is he there please?”
“Oh, no I’m afraid Mr. Manning is out for the evening. He should be back presently however. Can I take a message?”
“Yes, please tell him that it’s urgent he come to his apartment house tonight. There’s been a break-in and he has to come and fill out a report, also there was some major damage done to the place.”
“Oh how horrid, I’ll see that he gets the message.”
“Please stress to Mr. Manning that he must get here tonight. I’ll be waiting for him.”
“I will Sergeant, goodnight.”
“Goodnight Sir,” Parker says, he then leaves the car and walks up to David’s apartment to set his trap.
23
David had never been happier to return to Davenport Manor.
Having dinner with April and May at the country club was like being in a whirlwind. They knew everyone it seemed, and felt compelled to talk to all of them. A dozen or more men came over to the table to talk and twice as many women gave them dirty looks. June barely got a chance to eat as April and May spent the entire evening introducing her to friends. David thankfully, if rudely, was spared introduction, except when May introduced the nimbleness of her toes by actually trying to give David a foot job under the table. He spent the rest of the night turned sideways in his seat.
David speaks to April and May as he and June head up the stairs.
“It was a one of a kind evening ladies, thank you and goodnight.”
Simon appears. “Oh David, I was just about to call you.”
“Yes Simon, how are you?”
“Fine David, but I have some bad news; there’s been a break-in at your apartment in the city. A Sergeant Tompkins called and said that they need you there as soon as possible.”
“What a shame.” April says. “You’d better go and see to that at once.”
“I guess so, thanks for relaying the message Simon.”
“You’re quite welcome.” Simon bids everyone a good night and leaves.
“I’ll go with you.” June says, and April and May give each other a st
ricken look.
“Oh June, stay here please.” April says. “There’s something that May and I want to talk to you about and tonight’s really the best time.”
“But I should go with David, that apartment used to be our home.”
“It’s all right honey, it shouldn’t take long. I should be back by midnight.”
April smiles. You should be room temperature by midnight. “Yes June, listen to David. Stay here.”
“All right I’ll stay, but David please hurry back.”
“I will honey. I love you.”
“I love you too.” June and David kiss goodbye and June watches him leave. She then turns to April. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”
“Oh, oh yes, well May and I were just wondering if you’d given any thought to a prenuptial agreement.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s like insurance June.” May says. “You’ll be a very wealthy woman someday. If you and David divorce, you wouldn’t want him to walk off with half of your money, would you?”
“If David and I ever broke up I wouldn’t care what happened, besides David has his own money.” While she talks, June leans against the polished mahogany banister as April and May sit near her on the wide marble stairs.
“June, compared to you David is a pauper, why he could never afford a home like this. Money does strange things to people.”
“David loves and protects me April. He would never take advantage of me. I was living on the streets when we met and he took me into his home and helped me to heal.”
May sends June a knowing smirk. “What did David ask in return, that you share his bed?”
“No, David didn’t touch me, wouldn’t touch me, for a long time, not until I was ready.”
April sends May a skeptical look. “Well whatever you say, but give it some thought, please?”
“Yes April, goodnight, goodnight May.”
“Goodnight June,” April and May say together.
After June is upstairs, May speaks to April. “That was brilliant, planting the idea that David would want her money that way.”
“Thank you,” April says distractedly, she’s gazing down the hall at Blake’s study.
Double or Nothing Page 18
