“My My Little Prince”
By Paul Johnson
Chapters:
1. The Murder
2. Jim takes a beating from David and Frank
3. Dave Tell Frank to get him
4. Sherine Speaks
5. Smitty Years Earlier
6. A New Smitty
7. Smitty’s New Profession
8. Smitty’s Continuing Education
9. Smitty Calls, Sherine Moves
10. Campbell Starts at the Hospital
11. Weekend in Ocala
12. Mom Calls
13. Dr. Pierre and Dr. Campbell Go to Dinner
14. Celebrating Sherine’s New Job
15. The Big Bike Rally
16. Joe Buys a Suit and Meets Sherine
17. Pool Hall - Sherine Hustles $200
18. Earth Quake - Pierre and Campbell in Haiti
19. Sherine’s New Apartment
20. Sherine’s New Job - First Day
21. Frank the PI Gets Closer
22. Sherine Goes Out With Joe
23. Mom calls
24. Pierre and Campbell in Port-Au-Prince
25. Sherine Admits She Likes Joe
26. The Date
27. Sherine and Michelle Talk
28. Frank Finds Campbell and Goes to Haiti
29. Sherine and Michell Have an Accident
30. Back From Haiti Breaks Into Pierre's Apt
31. Dr. Pierre Goes North
32. Pierre Meets Garcia for the First Time
33. Frank Digs for Clues at the Mental Hospital
34. In The hospital, Evon Visits Sherine
35. Frank Finds Dr. Pierre is in Las Terrenas
36. Out of Hospital, Evon Comes Over
37. Sherine and Michelle Go to See Spinner
38. Waiting for Joe to Come Home
39. Frank Arrives in Las Terrenas
40. Frank’s a Drug Rep At The Seminar
41. Dr. Garcia and Dr. Pierre Get Intimate
42. Pierre and Frank Meet
43. Joe Talks To Dan, Overdoses, Divorces
44. Pierre Kills Frank
45. David Paces Waiting To Hear From Frank
46. Sherine Attacks Her Mom
47. The Orderly Talks
48. Dr. Garcia Prepares for Dr Pierre’s Arrival
49. Pierre Attacks Sherine
“My My Little Prince”
By Paul Johnson
Bright sun, blue water a perfect day to kill the bitch. A fun day he told himself. He could not help but smile while searching for anyone watching except for Marilyn. She was fumbling with the line on the dock not paying much attention to anything. All seemed clear although the sun was almost blinding, making it hard to be sure all eyes were elsewhere. He had done this before and each time he enjoyed it more.
“Come on Marilyn, grab the rope and untie the bow first.” An excited note of impatience was audible in his voice. He continued, “That’s right, that one, untie it.” He watched her while she tried to keep her hands from trembling for about two seconds and then blurted out, “Come on! Untie the damn rope! What the hell are you doing?”
Marilyn looked at him in shock as she barely got out, “Why are you so upset today?” Gaining some composure she managed to say, “It’s a beautiful day. The sun’s out and we did it. We made a ton of money and all we have to do today is relax and go out for a nice ride.” She bent over and shook a nicely rounded ass. Winking back at him, she added “… and make love.” She stood and looked back at him, smiling from ear to ear.
“You’ll see baby.” He grinned, getting hold of himself. “I’m excited. But for now just untie the goddamn line.” “Let’s get this piece of crap out of this marina before anyone sees me. You know I can be spotted easily here at the marina; especially when the cruise ships are coming and going.”
Marilyn busied herself with the tie-down again. She looked up and said, “That ship doesn’t leave until five. See it’s still sitting there empty. No one’s even watching from the decks yet. Relax baby, we’re fine.” With some trouble she managed to untie the rope. She turned and dangled it in front of her, “There,” she said, “are you happy now?”
“About damn time.”
He paused for a second as he looked at her in the front of the boat. She was slightly silhouetted with the sun at about ten o’clock behind her. Her lush body looked so amazing - it actually made him stop and swallow. He shook his head slowly, “No Marilyn, I have a new game plan for today.”
“What?” She asked a little worriedly. “He is always a little temperamental but he seems a bit stretched today. I better watch my step,” She thought.
She looked up at him and said, “Come on sweetie, please try to relax. This is supposed to be a nice ride; for fun. I’d hate to see how you would be if we had to get the cocaine ourselves after each drop. Your head would be spinning more than Linda Blair’s,” she laughed. “We’ve managed to get all the deals done without having to do anything. Pretty smart if you ask me!”
She got done coiling the rope and moved toward the back of the boat where the ride would be a little smoother once they were out on open water. Nervously she rambled on, “It’s not like we haven’t gone out of the port before for fun. We have nothing to worry about.” She reached out and took his hand and held it to her cheek. “What an easy way to make money honey. All we do is make a few calls and let our boy Jim go fishing for the day.”
He looked at her and said, “Shut up!” He jerked his hand away and wiped it on his pants. “I know the fucking system. Remember I came up with the fucking system.” He turned back to watch where he was going. “Did the pick-up take place yet?”
“Honey is will happen very soon. You forget so easily. Without me you would be lost and maybe even forget how easy this has all been. You really didn’t have to think or remember anything, did you? I took care of everything. I hope you liked my idea of the little electronic trackers.” She was beginning to jabber a bit.
He turned and looked at her with a deep blank stare and said again, “I told you to shut up.”
Marilyn looked at him in shock but kept mumbling about the pick-ups. After a few moments she blurted out, “Thank God for the swift hands of the captain.” This came out a wet dollop on the hysterical side; she couldn’t help a tiny hysterical laugh. “How he manages to toss the packages out so neatly wrapped near the same marker each weekend is genius. And David has no idea that his contacts are working for us.”
She looked up and saw that he was staring at her intensely and she nervously blurted again, “Honey please! What is it? What is your problem?”
“Shut up! I will not listen to you babble on about nothing anymore. Do you hear me?”
“What do you want from me?” She looked at him and said, placating, “Honey, please relax, please! What has gotten into you?” And to herself, “I wonder why I love him so much. It was stupid of me to get tangled up with him. I risked everything for him and he treats me terribly now. It’s hard to even remember when he treated me like a lady.” Crying slightly, Marilyn asked him quietly and as gently as she can, “Sweetheart, you love the time we spend together don’t you?”
He looked at her and asked, “What did you say, come on, what are you mumbling on about?”
“Nothing!” she pouted again, “Nothing important! Just dumb thoughts to keep my mind occupied so that I don’t speak and have you yell at me again and so I won’t think about how badly you are treating me today.” She babbled on as she sat, holding on to the gunwale with both hands.
“Well shut up then and pay attention, here comes the fucking Marine Patrol. Smile and look like you are getting ready to do some fishing or something fun, OK? You think you can manage that?
”
“Isn’t that what we are doing? Well not fishing, but I mean just going out for fun?”
“Shut up!” he told her again. “Is it Jim?”
“Yes,” she said with a sniffle. She wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands and pushed sun bleached hair off her forehead.
“So what if it’s Jim? What’s the problem?” she asked.
“You idiot,” he hissed, “ remember, no one has seen me, only you.”
She stood up and waved to the passing Marine Patrol Captain, arching her back slightly to accentuate her impressive curves. The gleaming twenty-two foot Grady White cruised by at a fairly rapid pace for being inside the markers, but only a simple small wave of wake was all that was given. He was a good Captain, intent on watching channel markers and boating traffic. She said, “You know baby, he does a great job for us. He has never taken a gram for himself although I hear that he has a taste for the powder. And using the Marine Patrol Captain? That was another of my genius ideas!””
Marilyn watched as the boat passed and then she sat down and said, “David would kill us immediately if he knew we worked his system right below his nose. HA! ‘Below his nose!’ - that’s funny isn’t it baby? ‘below his nose?’” She got no reaction so she sat quietly for a minute watching the Patrol Boat recede back toward the marina. Then she gave out a quiet laugh. “Hey honey,” Marilyn yelled as she gazed off at the beauty all around them, “how much do you love me?”
The water was a dull blue, typical for the east coast of Florida, and erosion rocks and sea walls lined both sides of the inlet. On the right they passed Jetty Park, a park for tourists and motor home camping. Several families fished, others sun bathed or swam close to shore, enjoying another beautiful day in the Sunshine State. On the left in the distance you could see Kennedy Space Center. The silhouette of a rocket sitting on a launch pad sat ready for next week’s launch of a communication satellite or some military apparatus … probably one in the same.
As they were leaving the port they entered open water and he threw the throttle forward three-quarters. The huge Johnson inboard surged and the twenty-five footer planed nicely before they got a hundred yards. In the distance they could just see the first deep-water marker.
He throttled up a little more to help jockey the waves better as they went past the inlet where the calm port waters finally met the stiffer waves of the open Atlantic. He looked at Marilyn again and said, “This is the last time I will tell you to shut up, got it?”
“I asked you. How much do you love me?” Marilyn blurted at him, out of control.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Us,” she replied, “you know, us, our future, our love, how much do you love me?”
At that moment he gunned the boat full throttle. As the bow of the boat raised high Marilyn fell backwards and landed hard on the engine cover. She hit the unforgiving fiberglass and a shock of pain jolted through her back. She moaned loudly but she still heard him say, “Marilyn there is no “us” and there was never an “us”, just me planning this little adventure for the last month. MY plan, got it? Every little detail was mine and anything you think was your idea was manipulated by me, you fucking puppet.”
Crying quietly to herself, she wrung her pretty hands. Her lacquered nails dug at the ball of her hand. They cruised a while in silence, getting further and further from shore. When they had gone on that way for some distance he suddenly reached back and grabbed her by her wrist. He pulled her towards him violently and she gasped in pain as he wrenched her arm. Pulling her directly into his face he stared into her astonished eyes, immense with fright. Her face was contorted with the pain. He held her close like that for a couple seconds, their noses almost touched. “Let the adventure begin.” He snarled. “I’ve been planning this little pleasure for too long!
“What adventure?” she wined nervously, her voice a quivering falsetto. She tried to pull away but he had both wrists now, the boat left to its own course. “You’re scaring me, what are you talking about?” A huge tear rolled down her rouged cheek and settled at the corner of her lovely lips. He leaned over and flicked it away with his tongue, and leered at her, eyes aflame.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet? Well, you will soon when we get out a few more miles.” He yelled over the loud engines, “I don't love you, I actually hate you!” He threw his head back and laughed, “Your childish attitude, your stupidity ... come on, it’s amazing you can be so beautiful and so gullible at the same time.” He pushed her roughly back down on the transom and turned back to the wheel.
"Thanks to your careful planning,” he yelled back over his shoulder “ I have you and his money and I will have a new life soon. I own you, you beautiful bitch.” He looked her up and down and said, “Oh, it’s a shame I have to get rid of you now. Such a pity, but as any good boss knows ... you do what you have to do and then move on.”
He spat another harsh laugh and said, “You actually thought there was an 'us'? I suppose you’ve figured it out by now what the adventure is that I have planned. It’s you baby, you, it is all about you. You’re the adventure; watching you float away.
He drove in silence again and then at some invisible line, he throttled back hard on the stick. The big boat seemed to settle like it was being swallowed before it buoyed back up. They bobbed there for a second and the boat turned a slow arc back towards shore, then he had her by the wrists again.
This time she fought him and managed to get one wrist free. She tried to scrape his face, but he punched her hard across her cheek. She felt something break and stars floated across the haze. She slumped, wanting desperately to pass out, but he would have none of it. “Ah, no you don’t, no passing out, I want you one hundred percent awake for this.” He eased her back down on the transom again and gently patted her cheeks, rousing her. Still befuddled, she calmed a bit and began to cry softly. She trembled and went slack, but she was conscious.
“I cannot believe that you would have even gotten on this boat with me. You’re so fucking stupid! Was it for ‘love’? Ha! How stupid is that?” He paced rapidly in front of her, only inches away. “God, you never did figure it out did you? This whole scheme was so simple; money for nothing and all I had to do was be the ghost.” He paced the few short steps across the boat and turned back to her.
“You see it now don’t you? Yeah, it suited me, because I needed you to be next. After I get a young beauty, like you, I kill them when I am finished with them.” He stopped pacing in front of her. “Aw-w, did I forget to tell you that?” He chuckled mirthlessly. “I’m so sorry about that Marilyn. Out of respect to you I am telling you now.” He brightened and nodded agreeably, “Although my little pretty, I must admit, that little bit of news may be a little late for you because it is on schedule for today.” He grabbed her arms again and jerked her powerfully, practically lifting her off her feet.
Marilyn realized that he was serious. She fought. She knew now that her life depended on it. She flailed and cursed and spat, but it was an exercise in futility. He was too strong. Again and again he slammed her head against the dash. Her knees buckled and she collapsed, wrapping her arms around his legs for support. She was dazed and weakened and she looked up, “Why are you doing this?”
He picked her up and pushed her back onto the engine cover again. A flood of pleasure galloped through is body. He wanted to live this in the moment; he didn’t want to miss a thing. He found this so much better for remembering and reliving it later, over and over again. To him it was better than collecting souvenirs; and a lot safer too.
The awareness that she was his was savagely sensual and he never wanted it to stop. She could be no more trouble. Now, most importantly, he was in complete control over her. His contorted face calmed and he laughed as he told her, “I am a sociopath baby, a proud sociopath, and I love to kill. It’s my drug of choice!” He stood staring down at her a full minute, breathing in and out like a guru practicing meditation, then he bent over to look in
to her down cast eyes. He cupped her chin and lifted her face gently. “And today you are going to fill my prescription quite nicely.”
He stood back up and looked all around the boat doing a complete 360, and then another slower 180 back towards shore. All horizons were clear. They were a good five miles out, past the last channel markers. No fishing boats could even be seen. He gazed shoreward and saw he could barely see the coast. In the distance a few of Cocoa Beach’s taller building that line the coast appeared, all in a haze. The only other visible thing was the Cocoa Beach Water Tower. He gave himself a satisfied sigh and the corners of his lips curled in a slight smile.
“Hi Honey. How do you feel?” Her left cheek was grossly swollen over the crushed frontal bone, sporting a large laceration. “Hey!” He shook her shoulder roughly. “What do you think baby? Wake up honey. It’s a beautiful day for a swim isn’t it? Are you ready for a swim? Here we are, floating along so nicely in the Gulf Stream. Isn’t it nice? See how the color of the water changed?”
Marilyn came out of her stupor and a confirmed realization grabbed her. She began to scream, terrified, but she may as well have been screaming in space ... there was definitely no one to hear her here. Only the gentle waves lapping on the side of the boat answered.
My My Little Prince Page 1
