The man smiled. “Oh, but I do. I really, really do.”
He walked to the door and opened it. Two women, golden skinned and small, walked in, also naked. Their bodies were perfect. Even as he watched in horror, he had to admire. Their demeanor, whipped into subservience, not meeting his eyes.
“You know the drill, bitches.”
They climbed on the bed, one on each side. The man got behind the camera. “Good. The dick can’t help himself. Watch that thing get hard. Lights, camera, action.”
****
“Here’s to Nick!” Emily said, raising her glass. “His foundation is poured.”
Nick bowed. “Thank you, thank you. But the honors go to the man from Climax, sage of the forest, champion of the wronged, Samaritan to the victim. Blue Moon!”
Blue grinned and took a sip of a coffee. “You’re full of shit, as you well know. As for champagne, this is my elixir. Seldom drink the other stuff anymore. I’ll hold out for another wedding.” He glanced at Nick.
Nick held up his hands. “Don’t stare so hard at me. It’ll be awhile yet.”
Emily’s smile vanished, and she darted her eyes away, quickly recovering as she grabbed some nuts from a bowl on the table. “Don’t push anything, Blue,” she said. “When the time is right, things happen.”
“Well, according to my inside information, unless you want the baby waiting at the altar, you better hope the time was wrong a few times.” Carolina smiled.
“You don’t have to splurt out that information to the group,” Emily said, her cheeks burning.
“She’s right,” Maggie said. “That’s personal.”
Carolina shrugged. “It’s just my immediate family and you and Nick. It’s not going outside this room. Which is a lot more than I can say for most of what you find out. Minus me, I have to admit.”
“Oh my God,” Emily said. “I should be mad at you, Carolina, but you highlighted something I hadn’t been paying attention to. I just realized I haven’t spread any gossip in…in …well, I don’t think I’ve spread any since Nick got here.”
Blue glanced at Nick. “Lord Almighty. Love is more powerful than I reckoned if you cured Emily Franklin of that.”
Everyone laughed. Except Emily.
Minutes later, as everyone was eating, Emily pushed back from the table. “You know guys, I don’t feel too well. Too much excitement yesterday. I think I’ll just go home.”
Nick blotted his mouth. “I’ll take you. Hold on.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I drove over here from the office. I can drive home. You stay and have fun. Maybe I’ll get to see Carlos before Aunt Millie and Grady put him to bed.”
She saw the worry in his eyes, the telltale twitch in his jaw. No doubt, he knew he’d made a grave mistake and was probably already sitting there figuring out how to extract himself from foot-in-mouth disease. Let him suffer a while.
As she made her way to the door, Nick met her. “Listen, Emily. If I phrased things badly earlier, I apologize. I just wasn’t expecting for someone to more or less pin me to saying something about what our time schedule was.”
She looked at the ground a minute and then met his gaze with her best feigned smile. “Well at least now I know it’ll be awhile.” She turned to leave and he grabbed her arm.
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
She turned. “There isn’t much gray in that statement, Nick. Just let me go right now.”
She walked out and tried to close the door quietly. No reason to upset the others. As she walked across the graveled drive to the car, a torrent of tears poured down her face. She wiped them away angrily. This was supposed to be a happy night. Not one like this.
As if on cue, the rain poured down, seemingly joining her pity party as she drove slowly the two miles home. She’d only had two glasses of champagne, not finishing the last, but better be safe than sorry. She cried for the statement, she cried for the stares, she cried for the way her heart beat in her throat when he said it.
Miserable, she turned onto her road, driving down slowly. The rain had let up, just a shower, but the trees, limp with rain, glimmering like spooky reminders of her misery, mirrored her mood. She exhaled in frustration as she saw the lights extinguished in the house. Only the porch light on. No one to talk to.
As she got out and turned on the alarm in her car, a vehicle flashed on its lights and slowly made its way around the side of the house. Unable to clearly distinguish its color, she thought navy blue, almost black. An old car, maybe 1990s. A Ford. License plates, Georgia. Trying hard, she memorized the license plate. JHN-0413.
As the car stopped, she backed up, ready to bolt if necessary. The driver’s window went down halfway. “Hello, Girlie Franklin. I’ve been watching you.”
She ran up the stairs.
The car window rolled down all the way. “Wait, sugar pussy. I saw your thatch, almost smelled you. I will before it’s over. You and me, we have a date. ”
She stopped on the porch, fiddling with the keys. She tried to push the right one in the lock. Closing her eyes, she cursed. Damn, get in there, for God’s sake.
“I’m jacking off, Girlie Franklin,” he said. “You just wait.” He peeled out and raced down the road.
With shaking hands, she managed to get the key in the lock, opened the door and slammed it behind her, locking it. Emily crumbled to the ground in convulsive hysterics, pushing speed dial for Cal.
****
Nick pushed back from the table. “Well, I have to say that coconut cake was better than any I’ve ever had. In fact, Maggie, I’m pretty impressed with all the grub.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Nick. It’s nice to be appreciated.”
Blue coughed. “Whoa, boy. Know when I’ve been put in my place.” He nodded at her. “Maggie, darlin,’ you are a most delicious chef and so is your food, and I’m proud of where you’ve come in a year.”
“Your apology is accepted,” she said, with a chuckle.
Blue grabbed Nick’s arm. “So, with that taken care of, please excuse me while I steal this young man before he cuts and runs because he made a blunder. I need to talk some sense into his confused noggin.”
“I didn’t….”
“Don’t argue with me, son.” He nodded at the coat rack. “Put on your jacket and follow me to my hunting shed.”
“Excuse me?”
Andy laughed from the table. “Blue does his best work behind the house.”
Nick surrendered, putting on his jacket and leaving behind Blue as they walked out in the damp wet cold, a front moving in.
“Sorry to see summer go,” Blue said. “It’s a friend. Riley appreciates it with his arthritis. Probably won’t see any more than another winter. Been wondering how many more winters I’ll see.”
Nick snickered. “You’re young. You have a long time left to go.”
They walked down the path and Nick smelled the air, picking up the faint smell of hickory smoke. A bit too warm for a fire, but someone seemed to have one.
“Time.” Blue sighed. “When you’re a young’un you think the supply is endless. Time is just a number. Then as you get older, it gets away from you. So do the wrinkles and the pains. One day you wake up and say, ‘Dang, I wish I’d listened sooner. If only I’d done that earlier.’ You know what I mean?”
Nick smiled. “I get it. You’re warning me I should propose.”
Blue shook his head. “Naw. I don’t tell people what to do. I don’t even tell myself what to do.” He paused next to a one-room building. “If I had, I wouldn’t have let Maggie leave when I was twenty-three years old, and never see her again until a year ago. Nobody can tell you what to do.” He took a deep breath. “Back then, sure wish somebody had hit me up against the head.”
Nick sat down n a stair of the building. “I guess I really blew it, huh?”
Blue shook his head. “Can’t tell you that either. All I can say is if you made a blunder, according to your heart, for God sakes, fix it boy,
before it tears you open.”
Nick’s cell began to ring. He pulled it out. “Sorry, Blue, it’s Emily. Yeah? Honey, it’s okay. No, it’s okay. Cal’s coming? I’m on my way. No, babe, I promise.” He hung up and stared at Blue. “The Peeping Tom just propositioned her. I’ve got to hurry.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Quent opened the door as Nick bounded up the stairs to the house. “They’re in the family room. Just wanted to make absolute sure it was you.”
Nick shook his head. “Who’d you think I was, the pervert?”
Quent raised an eyebrow. “Hey look, Nick, stranger things have happened, even here in Climax, so chill out a bit. I’m giving you some slack. I know you’re worried. Just get in there to Emily.”
He nodded and swiftly closed the distance to the family room. Emily sat on the sofa; Millie still had her arm wrapped around Emily’s shoulders. Cal sat on the edge of the ottoman.
“Hey, Nick.” Cal smiled as he entered the room.
“Cal.” Nick immediately sat down next to Emily and grabbed her hand. He leaned down and kissed her cheek and brushed the hair from her face. “Honey, I am so, so sorry.”
Emily’s eyes welled with tears, and she scrunched up her lips. “It was hideous. What he said was terrifying. I think he’s coming back.”
“He doesn’t want a part of me,” Millie said. “I know how to use my firearm.” She held up her hand to Cal. “Not to worry, darlin’. If he starts to fall outside, I’ll drag him in. Nobody’ll even charge me.”
“I hope we can catch him before anybody has to worry about anything. So far we have him on trespassing, invasion of privacy and I think we also have him on possession of a stolen vehicle.”
“How so?” Nick asked.
Cal nodded at Emily. “She memorized the license plate number. We ran it through. I was suspicious because it was JHN-0413. Sounded like a Bible passage to me, John 4:13, one about eternal life. Sure enough, the car’s registered to Luke Lincoln.”
“You’re kidding.”
Cal shook his head. “Nope. And we don’t know what happened to Lincoln. He’s gone. So we might have this guy on kidnapping, maybe murder. Who knows?”
Emily shivered. “How are you going to catch him? You don’t know who he is.”
Cal shook his head. “Not yet. But you gave a fair description of what the guy looked like who peeped into your window that time. We’ll get an artist to do a sketch and run it. See if we find anyone’s mug shot that looks like it. I also have a suspicion that guy is the owner of the green car the landlady talked about. So I believe I’ll have me a talk with Justine Burton about her gardener.”
“It all sounds like a web woven around the same theme,” Quent said. “Doesn’t it?”
Nick nodded. “It sure does. But I don’t want us to get caught in it.”
****
“The lieutenant tells me your car has been identified.”
“How?” Monstruo stared at Kingpin. “I have been very careful transporting our cargo.”
Kingpin stared at him, fighting the urge to unleash his full anger on the man. “The landlady and a little boy named Jésus.”
Monstruo’s eyelids all but closed over his eyes. “I knew I should have kidnapped the little shit when I got his bitchin’ mother. But the woman was screaming so hard, trying to save the boy, I didn’t want to draw anymore attention.”
“He also spotted the car up next to where you hide the women.”
“Great.” Monstruo crossed his arms. “It’s a perfect spot to leave them and I can film there to. I guess I have to move everything. But where do I go?”
“Don’t move them right away,” he said. “Just ditch the car. Also ditch the preacher’s. That’s been IDed as well.”
“What am I supposed to drive?”
Kingpin shrugged. “Be resourceful. What about that partner of yours you’ve been squealing about? Take his.”
“What about him?”
Kingpin grinned. “We already have the last load of drugs hidden. Another load won’t be coming for at least a month. We can recruit another grunt. As for coming back to the storage unit, just stay clear up there for awhile. If you have to come in, drive the dirt road over to the back of their location. Your car is less likely to be seen. But only do that if you swipe another one.” He took a deep breath. “Did you take care of the preacher?”
He nodded. “Done. Kidnapped, filmed, executed. As easy as one, two, three.”
“What’d you do with the body?”
He laughed. “I left him in a memorable location. Make that plural.”
****
“Hurry up,” Aunt Millie told Emily. “This will take your mind off all that stuff last night. Cindy and Connie need our support and it’s only right we’re there for friends.”
Emily nodded as she finished putting on make-up before the mirror. “It doesn’t seem like it could possibly be six months since Darla was murdered by that creep.”
“Tell me about it.” Aunt Millie sighed. “And the way things have been going around here lately, I’m not sure the nightmares will ever stop and allow this little town to rock along at a nice slow easy speed.”
“Well, Aunt Millie, I think there have always been problems,” Emily said. “It’s just that the heinous nature of these appear worse, and I’m hoping they really are an exception not the rule. I also think in the past a lot of crimes were swept under the carpet, like assaults and even some men who died out in the woods. Just an old drunk, probably killed himself. You know what I mean.”
“Maybe.” Aunt Millie tapped her foot. “Seems worse now. But, since I have a healing knife wound in my back, I have a new perspective. You’ve dillydallied long enough. Come on!”
Emily nodded putting down her mascara. “Okay, Mother.” She leaned over and hugged her. “You pretty much have been and still are. Thanks for being here.”
“Don’t make me cry,” she said. “I have on mascara too, and you know, even without tears, I’ll end up looking like a raccoon.”
Minutes later they joined Cindy at her house. Connie—Darla’s daughter—Carolina and Maggie stood outside the house.
“Now this is the way I see it,” Cindy said. She turned to Connie. “If there’s anything you don’t like, just say so.”
Connie nodded. “Aunt Cindy, I wouldn’t dare disagree with you unless it was life or death.”
Emily smiled. Connie had bloomed since coming back to Climax. She’d lost her white pallor, eased up from her rigid exterior, probably a work habit since she’d worked at the General Assembly, and her life had gotten uncomplicated. Running the B&B was obviously not a taxing chore to her.
Cindy chuckled. “Good girl. Things are so much easier that way. Now, on to the game plan. Milestones are important after a death. It’s like we move beyond and begin to see the mighty heroic things that played a part of the person’s life. Our going up there today is a tribute. But after we go up in procession of cars, park and surround Darla’s gravestone, then we come back here and we celebrate her life and ours with a good old fashioned picnic and some tales about the past. Everybody agreed?”
“I’m with Connie,” Maggie said. “I think I’ll just agree with you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay. Off we go.”
All the women piled in their cars and drove out of the drive at Cindy’s house. Emily and Millie were in the car right behind Cindy, Connie and Maggie as the pulled out on the road and made their way at a slow speed up the main drag, then turned and drove up the hill to the cemetery.
Parking, they all got out, and Cindy walked along the line getting everyone in order. “Connie insisted I lead, so let’s go, ladies.” They walked into the cemetery and followed the path around the trees to the back where Darla was buried.
Emily saw it first, squinting against the sun, now high in the sky at ten o’clock in the morning. A long pole, in the ground near the northwest corner. Just this side of the old oak tree. Getting closer, she realized there was s
omething on the top of the pole, almost like a totem. Then she realized what it was.
“Oh, my God, Oh, my God!” Cindy screamed.
And Connie fainted, crumbling to the ground.
Emily stared into the lifeless eyes of the bloody decapitated head of Luke Lincoln.
****
“I’m glad we decided to take it easy and go into the worksite late,” Nick said. “That was way too much excitement last night, and I had a lot to think about. Besides, the crew isn’t there now anyway, since we’re waiting on the foundation to settle.”
“I agree.” Grady turned in his seat. “What you have to think about?”
Nick sighed. “I screwed up last night. When Blue mentioned he was waiting for a wedding to drink champagne and looked at me, I was worse than Peter when he betrayed Jesus.”
Grady smiled. “I guess Emily didn’t take it too well.”
He shook his head. “If I’d kept my yap shut she’d never gotten back here when that maniac stopped in front of the house.”
Grady shook his head and let out a deep breath. “You can’t beat yourself up about that. It was her decision to leave the party, and that guy would have found his opportunity one way or the other.”
“I know.” Nick slapped the steering wheel. “That had me thinking too. How do we cover all the bases so that guy can’t get close to her? Or Carlos for that matter. I’m sure he has to be the same guy stealing people. Surely we don’t have multiple lunatics running around out there.”
“Takes more than one person to run not one but two trafficking rings, and a bevy of beauties on the side for rent, plus, did I mention the porn movie angle?”
Nick gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Thanks, Grady, for trying to alleviate my fears. Even with all that going on, I have another issue I have to solve in my brain.”
“What’s that?” Grady asked.
“Blue talked to me last night about what I’d done at the party. He took me down to his hunting cabin for a talk. Andy says he did the same thing right before he proposed to Carolina.”
“Ah.” Grady grinned. “So he told you that you should pop the question?”
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 148
