by Donald Wells
She was likely living with a psychopathic murderer and had no clue of his sadistic nature. What if the stress of the investigation drove him to become violent towards her? No new women had gone missing in nearly a month, and if Thorne was controlled by a sick compulsion, then the pressure to kill must be building within him. I had to warn Felicia, but how? I couldn’t just drive up to the estate, even if I somehow got inside, Thorne would never leave the two of us alone to talk.
Sophie! Sophie’s card.
I sat on the bed and rifled through my wallet. I found the card and flipped it over to read the cell phone number.
What are doing John? You know what Sophie will think if you call, what Felicia will think.
I dialed the number anyway. It didn’t matter what Sophie thought; Felicia had to be warned. I had to do everything I could to keep her safe.
Sophie answered after four rings. “Hello?”
“Sophie, hi, this is John Faron.”
“I’m glad you called John, Felicia’s been especially depressed lately and she won’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“I’m in the city and… I need to see her, today, actually within the next two hours would be ideal. Can you arrange it?”
“I’ll tell David that we’re going shopping, he would never suspect that I would arrange a… meeting between you two.”
“That’s all it’s going to be Sophie, a meeting. I have something important to tell Felicia.”
“Whatever you say, now, how do we go about this?”
* * *
The plan I came up with was this: Sophie and Felicia would drive into the city and head for the nearest large department store. Felicia would then leave the store by a side exit and make her way to a quiet hotel I’d chosen. Later, Felicia would rejoin Sophie in the shoe department as if she had never left at all.
I arrived at the hotel early and signed in under an assumed name, while leaving word at the desk that my wife would be joining me. I spent most of my time pacing while I waited.
Half an hour later my stomach reminded me that I had only had coffee thus far that day and I began browsing the room service menu.
I ordered a burger for me and a shrimp cocktail for Felicia, I’d remembered that she always loved any kind of shrimp.
The food came, and still no Felicia. After the waiter left, I looked about the room and suddenly felt sleazy.
If this didn’t look like an affair, it would do until I actually had one.
Tori could never know about this. No matter how honorable my intentions might be, I was still meeting the only other woman I would ever love, in a hotel room in the middle of the afternoon, and using an assumed name to do it.
I heard a noise at the door and watched as Felicia entered. She then shut the door and leaned her back upon it. She was wearing a bright wool print dress that fell to mid-thigh and, with the top three buttons unfastened, it exposed a generous proportion of cleavage. I felt immediate arousal, which only intensified when she graced me with a mischievous smile.
“Mr. and Mrs. Chris Roberts? Does Janey know about this?”
“Nobody knows about this, and that’s how it has to stay.”
“I take it by the aliases that you’re still with Tori?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Of course, and I’m with David and neither of us gives a damn who’s with whom, do we?”
“Felicia, I don’t know what your aunt told you, but I only asked you here to talk.”
Felicia dropped her purse near the door and began taking off her shoes.
“We’ll talk after, but right now I’m alone with you, and I’d begun to fear that I’d never see you again.”
“You went five years without seeing me, that didn’t seem to bother you.”
She sighed and slid by me on her way to the bed. As she passed, I breathed in her perfume. It was the one she wore our first time together; I could never smell it without thinking of that night.
“Johnny, those years were the worst of my life and I have no intention of ever living through them again. Tori be damned and David can go to hell. I love you, and maybe we’ll never live together as man and wife, but as God is my witness, if I can’t have at least a piece of you I’ll go mad, I swear I’ll go mad.”
I watched as she turned down the covers on the bed.
“Felicia, I’m marrying Tori. Nothing is going to happen here. Please, let me explain, you’re in danger. It’s David, he’s not who you think he is. Now there’s not much time, I have to get back. Please take a seat and we’ll talk.”
“You don’t want to talk. We could have met in the bar if that’s all you wanted to do.”
I gestured about the room. “I just thought we should have privacy.”
She said, “You were so right,” and then she smiled, the big one, the one that lit me up when she was a kid and set me on fire after she had matured.
I then watched, as she grabbed the bottom of the dress and pulled it over her head, beneath it, she was naked.
Now, I had rarely been to church since I was six, when my mother became a lapsed Catholic. And yet, as I feasted upon her beauty I heard myself whisper the words, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph,”
Felicia lowered herself back onto the bed and stretched out upon it luxuriously.
“Make love to me Johnny, please?”
Before I knew what was happening, my jacket and tie hit the floor and I had one knee on the bed. At that moment, I forgot all about David Thorne and, as sad as it is to admit, Tori Jameson never once entered my mind.
41
Heaven. No other word comes close to describing it.
I was lying atop of Felicia, my face buried against her neck, surrounded by that hair, her curly, sensuous honey-colored hair.
In it, were shades of ginger, amber, red highlights and auburn tresses that by tomorrow would morph into different hues altogether.
I swear her hair was never the same. It was alive.
It was her single most distinguishing characteristic, and I adored it to no end.
My hands explored her naked flesh and I moaned at the pleasure. I moved my lips to hers and felt her tongue slip past and tangle with my own. God, the taste of the woman, the feel of her, the naked warmth,
I rose up onto my knees, positioned between her parted thighs, and tore at my shirt, sending buttons torpedoing about the room like the tiny bits of conscience which nettled at my mind.
As I hustled out of my shirt, Felicia’s hands were busy with my belt and I thought I would die from the ache of anticipation.
Tori!
Just a flash across my mind,
Felicia yanking down my zipper,
Tori!
My slacks sliding to my knees,
Tori!
Felicia’s groping hands reaching into my boxers, finding the prize, a prize that by now was impossible to have missed.
Tori, gone forever!
I took ahold of Felicia’s hands. “God Almighty, I’m begging you, please stop.”
She stroked. “No, make love to me. Don’t think; just make love to me… love.”
I’m frozen there, head thrown back in ecstasy, her hands probing… stroking.
TORI, GONE FOREVER!
“Felicia, I can’t lose Tori, please, if you truly love me, please stop because as God is my witness I swear I’m not strong enough to end it.”
Her hands faltered. “Johnny I can’t live without you.”
“I can’t live without Tori. I’m begging you!”
Her hands withdrew and I fell beside her on the bed, with my pants around my knees.
Felicia pulled up the sheet to cover herself, as she cried out.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
I rose from the bed, while pulling my pants up.
“I swear I came here to talk, only talk. I had to warn you.”
“Warn me? What are you talking about?”
“David, Felicia, baby, the police, they think that he’s a murderer, a seria
l killer, the one they named PLATINUM.
Her face instantly screwed up in confusion.
“Why are you… no! No, I know you don’t like him, but my God, he’s not a monster. He’s extremely selfish, arrogant, demanding, but a killer, and a… a rapist? No, who told you this?”
“Baby, he and another man, Jerold Rainer, Jerry, they’re the ones that have been murdering and abducting women for years.”
“Jerry? David’s friend Jerry, what about him?”
“Bill says that the Task Force believes he’s the one that committed the rapes, while David, David killed.”
She rose from the bed, and a jolt of desire passed through me at the sight of her nakedness, but then she quickly wiggled into her dress and walked to the door to grab her purse and put on her shoes.
“Bill’s wrong. David is not a serial killer.”
I walked over to where she stood.
“Don’t go back home, take your aunt and hide somewhere until the police sort this out. If I’m wrong, then you can go back to him, but if I’m right, oh God, if I’m right then you’re in danger and I can’t stand the thought of you being in danger.”
“I’m going home, the police are wrong, they must be wrong.”
Unpardonable lust now morphed into justified fury, and I grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Goddamn you and this sick fuck you married. What hold does he have on you? Does his fucking money really mean that much to you? I’ll give you money; I’ll give you millions. Just leave him!”
Felicia fell back against the door.
“Money? You think I stayed away from you all these years because of money? What do you think I am, a whore? If we had made love, what were you going to do afterward, throw bills on the dresser? Oh God, Johnny what do you think I am?”
“I saw it in your eyes Felicia, the day of Janey’s wedding. You stayed with him because he could give you things I couldn’t. Baby, I’m not judging you. I know how you grew up. I know how tempting his wealth must have been, you were a young girl and—”
She hit me, a solid slap that filled the room and made my cheek sting. She then looked me up and down with disgust.
“I’m not a whore and David is not a murderer.”
“Please baby, he’s dangerous. Don’t go back home, please?”
She started crying and I reached for her but she pushed me away.
“He can’t be what you say he is. He can’t.”
“I’ll call Bill and you can look at the evidence.”
“No, it can’t be, that would mean… no.”
She opened the door to leave, but then turned, and stared at me.
“I’m late. I’ve never been this late in my life. If David is what you think he is, what’s that make me? What’s that make my baby?” Next, she flew down the hall and onto an arriving elevator.
I stood in the open doorway, speechless, half-naked, and more frightened for her than I was when I arrived.
42
Soap, shampoo, conditioner, more soap,
I had been in the shower for forty minutes and I swear I could still smell Felicia upon me, still taste her tongue, the feel of her hands on my—
I shook myself.
There is no odor of perfume John; what you’re smelling is guilt.
Tori would be back any minute.
I was in our hotel room. When I arrived back, I immediately undressed and sent my clothes to the cleaners.
Now, I’d been bathing so long that my skin was beginning to prune.
My God, I so wanted her, needed her. What is it she does to me, has always done to me since the day I first laid eyes on her.
I heard a noise and knew that Tori had returned. I stepped from the shower and began drying myself as she poked her head through the door.
“Hi there,”
“Hey honey, how was shopping?”
Tori walked in and leaned against the blue tile wall.
“Shopping was fine. Why were you showering? Are we going out for dinner?”
“Yeah, soon as you’re ready. Did you find a dress?”
“I did.” She said, and then stared at me.
“What? Why are you staring?”
“I was just wondering if you’ve been a good boy.”
I managed a smile, it was shaky, but it was a smile.
“What’s that mean?”
“You think I don’t know that you spent all day with her?”
“With who?”
“Ms. Lee, your ‘Personal Assistant’, things better not have gotten too personal.”
“Oh stop, you know I don’t think of her that way.”
Tori kissed me.
“Just teasing, but for a moment there you almost looked guilty.”
“She and Bill are dating.”
“Get out of here, Bill Healy and Ms. Lee?”
“She said they had a lunch date today.”
“I wonder if Bill managed to add her to the menu.”
“Tori! I’m sure Bill was a perfect gentleman.”
“What is her name anyway, her first name?”
I thought for a moment.
“You know I don’t know; she’s just Ms. Lee.”
“I hope she doesn’t break Bill’s heart, he deserves to be happy.”
I sighed. “Ms. Lee could make any man happy.”
“So, you have noticed her?”
“She’s a little hard to miss.”
Tori began undressing, in moments she was naked. She came to me.
“Did you miss me big boy?”
“I did.”
“I thought about you all day, and guess what? I’ve finally settled on a date. How’s Valentine’s Day sound?”
I made a face.
“Tori, you know I lost my grandfather on that day.”
“And you also lost Felicia on that day. It’s time you gained something, hmm? Sort of remove the curse?”
“If you’re happy with it, I’m happy with it.”
“Then it’s settled, on Valentine’s Day I become Mrs. John Faron.”
Tori stepped into the shower and pulled me back inside with her. My skin must have thought I was trying to drown it.
“Where would you like to get married?” I asked. “Our house will be ready by then; we could get married at home.”
“My father owns a house that would be perfect, it’s in California though, on Monterey Bay, would you mind traveling?”
I scrubbed her back. “No, and we’ll fly all the guests out there too, but will your father let you use it?”
“I may have to pour on the guilt a bit, but he’ll let us use it. Wait until you see it, it’s one of those houses built on stilts and it sits right on the ocean.”
I turned her around and fondled her breasts.
“Sounds great,”
I suddenly flashed on an image of Felicia, naked in bed, and my reaction to the thought didn’t go unnoticed.
“My my, you did miss me, didn’t you?”
I turned off the shower. “Dinner can wait. Let’s make love, I can always eat later.”
Tori stepped from the shower and sent a seductive smile over her shoulder.
“In fact big boy, you can do both.”
43
The next two months were both extremely hectic, and yet, seemed to drag by excruciatingly slow.
On a personal note, time moved like lightning, what with planning the wedding, forming a corporation and renovating a house, but the case against David Thorne seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace and each day I grew more worried for Felicia.
Bill assured me that a case was being built and that David would soon be in custody. All they had on the man so far was strictly circumstantial evidence, but Lieutenant Garner had recently arrested Jerold Rainer on an unrelated hit and run accident, that had also resulted in a drunk driving charge.
Garner was now pressuring Jerry to give up Thorne or face numerous rape charges, along with attempted murder. It seems that the last two victims murdered i
n the Castle Ridge area years ago, had several slash marks made by a left-handed person, such as Rainer, while Thorne was right-handed. The police surmised that either Thorne had forced Rainer into cutting the girls, or perhaps, Rainer had just wanted to know what it felt like to torture someone. None of the wounds inflicted were fatal, but they still implicated Rainer and if the D.A.’s office could ever get past his legal team’s maneuvering and obtain a DNA sample, they could compare it with semen found on three of the victims.
I had called Sophie the following day after I met with Felicia and found her to be just as incredulous as her niece.
Neither woman wanted to believe that the man they had lived with for years was a murderer. At the end of the call, Sophie told me it would be best if I never called again.
* * *
Bill and I were running together at the Castle Estate, around a mile long track that circled an artificial lake I had installed on the grounds. I had gone all out. The track could be heated in cold weather, as it was now, to prevent ice from forming, and had an indoor restroom and water fountain. Add this to the tennis and basketball courts on the grounds, and I had a virtual park of my own to play in. The house was nearly completed and we planned to move in after our wedding. Bill and I finished our run and took a seat on one of the benches.
“Are you still living with your brother?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’s been great, but I’m looking for an apartment now.”
“You know, this place is going to have twelve bedrooms, why don’t you move in here?”
“Are you serious? I’m sure Tori wouldn’t be too happy about that.”
“It’s her idea in fact. Bill, you’re the closet thing in the world I’ve got to family, and after all, it is a big goddamn house.”
He sat silently for a few seconds, and then he punched me on the shoulder.
“I accept… son, and tell Tori I said thank you.”
“Will you be having a roommate, say, Ms. Lee?”
“No, we’re over. We both agreed that we weren’t made for the long haul, she’s a great girl, but I think in the end, she’s a little young for me.”
“Hey, by the way, what’s her first name?”
