Shadow of Perceptoin

by Kristine Mason

  Westly squirmed his ass against the chair.

  “Calm down. This is a paralytic. It will only last for a minute, just long enough to keep you still while I ready you for your procedure. Don’t worry, though, you’ll be able to see, hear and feel everything I’m doing to you.”

  “Please…what procedure?”

  Michael jabbed the man’s arm and released the drug. “You ask too many questions.” He turned and grabbed the thin metal chains he’d manipulated specifically for Westly’s benefit. Each chain had been fashioned with two large, razor-sharp hooks. Knowing he had to work quickly before the drug wore off, he took one of the chains, pierced the inside of Westly’s cheek with the hook, then gave it a tug. Blood, mingling with saliva, oozed from the corner of the dentist’s mouth. Michael ignored the mess as he pulled the chain taut, and pierced the other hook through the man’s ear. Certain the chain would hold, he hurriedly fastened the second chain to the other side of Westly’s mouth.

  Michael checked his watch. He only had fifteen to twenty seconds before the dentist would regain use of his body again. Strips of duct tape, which he’d cut from the roll earlier, hung from the workbench. He pushed Westly’s chin down in order to use the duct tape to keep his jaw from closing. Unfortunately, he hadn’t anticipated the lack of mobility the hooks would cause.

  “Well, Dr. Westly, I hadn’t planned on adding this to your procedure, but I’m afraid we’ll have to improvise.”

  He grabbed a hammer off the bench, then smacked the dentist’s jaw until it dangled. With Westly’s jaw hanging in a permanent yawn, Michael decided the duct tape wasn’t necessary after all, which happened to be a good thing considering the paralytic would begin to wear off in a matter of seconds.

  At that moment, Westly began to groan and his eyes rolled. Tears started to stream down his cheeks and fall into his perma-grin.

  “Shh,” Michael hissed. “Talking will only force the hooks deeper into your flesh. Trust me, what I have in store for you will be enough pain. You don’t want to add any more.”

  Moaning and now fully alert, his eyes bright with fear and pain, Westly stared at him.

  “I’ll admit I know my way around surgery, just not this kind of surgery. But I did look it up on You Tube, so I feel confident that I’ll do right by you.”

  Westly widened his eyes and tried to talk. More blood oozed from his mouth as the chains tightened.

  “I told you not to try and speak.” Michael reached for the Black and Decker, then set it on the man’s lap. He then tied the surgical mask at the nape of his neck. “But I see you’re uneasy. Maybe if you know what I’m going to do, that’ll help you relax.”

  He moved to the video camera, checked the focus then said, “Do you remember your patient, Eliza Morrison? Blink once for yes, two for no.”

  One blink.

  “Good. You see, she was my daughter. You convinced her to have teeth removed and replaced, and also talked her into veneers. You then sent her to the bastards who proceeded to talk my daughter into unnecessary surgeries. You know, breast implants, liposuction, nose job…understand?”

  Two blinks.

  “No? Hmm. You don’t remember receiving money for patients you sent to Cosmetic Solutions and Med Spa?”

  Tears filled Westly’s eyes as he blinked twice.

  “Tsk, tsk, Doctor. You’re lying. Now tell the truth. Did you receive money for sending patients to those butchers at Med Spa?”

  Westly blinked once and released a low, guttural moan.

  “See, now doesn’t it feel good to tell the truth? Here’s the real truth behind your buddies at Cosmetic Solutions and Med Spa. They’re all quacks. They talked not only my daughter, but as I’ve discovered during my research, many, many others just like her, into unnecessary surgeries. Some of those girls turned out okay, others are in therapy. Guess where my daughter is, Dr. Westly? Six feet under.”

  The dentist closed his eyes and groaned again.

  “My sentiments exactly. Now, enough chit chat.”

  Michael turned on the video recorder, then moved toward his patient, and retrieved the drill from the man’s lap.

  “Open wide and say, ahh.”

  *

  “That you, Pudge?”

  “Yes,” Pudge responded and slammed the door shut.

  “You remember my Happy Jax this time?”

  “Yes, you fat bitch,” Pudge mumbled, then said loud enough for Mama to hear, “I’ll bring it to you in a minute. Just let me change.”

  “Well, you better hurry on up, I’m starving. You can’t expect me to—”

  Mama’s words fell on deaf ears as Pudge slammed the bathroom door shut. “I hate her,” Pudge whispered.

  me too me too kill her

  “Don’t start that again. Especially after what you did this morning to Mama.”

  so sorry precious dont be mad at me i love you

  Pudge released a sigh and reached for the cold cream to remove the make-up. “I’m not mad at you. I can never stay mad at you. I love you, too. But I’m worried you might have caused a problem with Mama.”

  i told her i was sorry and made the bitch her breakfast

  “I know you did, but remember what she said about the inheritance?”

  yes yes we should kill her now kill her before she takes the money away

  Pudge stopped, stared at the mirror and smiled. “She can’t take the money away. Without me, she has no contact to the outside world. All I have to do is take the phone away and she’s completely isolated.”

  wrong wrong wrong the visiting nurse the nurse remember the nurse

  Pudge frowned. The inheritance could be in jeopardy. “Shit, the nurse. You’re right. Mama could get the nurse to help her draw new papers changing her will.”

  cant happen cant cant kill her

  “Damn it, I’m not killing Mama. I already told you that—”

  hello doctor dread hello

  Grinning again, Pudge looked to the mirror. “You’re so bad, and brilliant. That’s why I love you so much.” Pudge released a sigh. “Let’s talk more about this in the morning. I don’t want to think about Mama, I’d rather think about how much fun we had tonight.”

  so much fun so much

  “And you didn’t think it was a good idea.”

  sorry precious i shouldnt have doubted you youre so smart and sexy

  Pudge’s smile grew at the compliment. Only recently were people beginning to see Pudge as someone to admire and respect. Not a pudgy punching bag. Except for Mama. But Mama would be put in her place. Pudge would see to it. No one would interfere with the plan. Too much was at stake.

  i enjoyed our lover enjoyed enjoyed

  Naked, Pudge sniffed the clothes recently removed. After inhaling the strong scent of semen still lingering on the clothes, Pudge released another sigh. “I enjoyed myself immensely. But not as much as my time with you.” Pudge giggled. “Or what we’d done afterward.”

  yes yes but we should have killed her

  “You have a two track mind,” Pudge scolded, but with a slight smile to lessen the blow. “Sex and murder.”

  money fame fortune money fame fortune

  “Okay, so more than a two track mind,” Pudge chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’ll kill her. When the time is right.”

  tonight was right tonight tonight

  Pudge finished dressing, then checked the mirror for any remnants of the disguise. “Tonight wasn’t the right time. You know as well as I do that we weren’t prepared. We have to stick with the plan. Plus, it looks like she has a new boy toy. We have to be cautious and make sure she’s alone…all night.” When Pudge had lurked around Eden Risk’s townhouse, an alarm had been raised. Not literally, but figuratively. The woman was alone, but without knowing the depth of her relationship with tall, dark and sexy, Pudge didn’t want to take any chances. Plus, Pudge had noticed a small change to Eden’s townhouse. A security camera.

  the man would be fun fun fun

  “Mmm,” P
udge hummed. “He would. Very sexy.”

  kill eden kill her make him our boy toy please please

  A loud crash splintered from the living room, drawing Pudge’s attention away from the mirror. “I better go see what that dumb bitch did now.”

  attention thats what she wants and her happy jax stuff it down her throat stuff it down make her choke

  Pudge smiled and reached for the door knob. “You really are bad.”

  yes yes very bad very bad lets be bad together

  “We have been, and we will be again. Patience, honey,” Pudge said to the mirror, then opened the door and turned off the light. After Mama had fed her face, Pudge would retreat to the bedroom and formulate a plan. If everything worked as anticipated, Eden would be dead by the end of the week. As for Mama…Pudge had suffered the woman’s abuse for over twenty-five years, a few more months was manageable. Mama’s nurse would be, too.

  Chapter 7

  “Did you sleep here?”

  Hudson jolted in the chair, reached for the gun strapped to his ankle then aimed.

  “Damn it, Rachel,” he said as he replaced the weapon. “Don’t do that to me.”

  Rachel stood in the doorway of CORE’s evidence and evaluation room, her big green eyes taking up most of her face as she stared at him. “You? How about me? A simple ‘good morning’ would have been nice.”

  While she acted as if being threatened with a gun at six in the morning was an everyday occurrence, her labored breathing said otherwise. He’d scared the shit out of her.

  He rubbed his eyes, then stretched. “Sorry. Good morning. And yes, I did sleep here.”

  Eyeing him with caution, she turned and peered at his laptop’s screen. “Who you spying on?”

  “I wasn’t spying on anybody. Just watching.”

  “Eden?”

  “No, her townhouse.”

  “What does her date look like? Cute?”

  He cracked his neck and tried to tamp down his irritation. While he wasn’t necessarily irked with Rachel, he didn’t need the reminder that Eden had kicked him out of her house for another man. And lied about it.

  “Her date never showed. And even if he had…I highly doubt I’d ever use the word ‘cute’ to describe any man.”

  Rachel raised her eyebrows. “No date? Hmm.”

  “Hmm,” Hudson echoed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She shrugged. “Whatever you want it to, I suppose. Not that it’s any of my business, but I guess I’d be wondering why she’d lie and put herself at risk rather than be alone with you.”

  Hudson stood, then moved to the coffee pot and filled two mugs. After he offered one to Rachel, he sat at the edge of the desk. “I know,” he said with a deep sigh. “She’s still pissed at me for what I did during the Winters case, but that’s no reason to put herself in a potentially bad situation.”

  “So you sat here all night watching. How do you think she’ll feel about that?”

  He winced. Knowing Eden, and how she liked her privacy, she’d be doubly pissed. “She doesn’t have to know.”

  “Huh,” Rachel grunted as she stared at his laptop. “Then how are you going to explain knowing about the guy dropping a package at her front door?”

  Hudson rushed to the computer and squinted at the screen. “Holy shit. I gotta go.” He grabbed his jacket and keys, then reached for the computer.

  Rachel stopped him. “Leave the laptop. I’ll see if I can find out who this guy is.”

  Five minutes later, he drove the Trans Am out of the parking garage. After making a quick turn, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. As he was about to call Eden, the phone rang. He checked the screen. Eden.

  “Morning,” he answered, trying to keep his tone light, even as his heart raced.

  “Hudson, thank God,” she said in a rush. “There was a man at my door just a second ago.”

  “I’m on my way, and will be there in less than fifteen. Don’t answer the door until I get there.”

  “I won’t. I didn’t. When I was going to take Brutal out to go potty, I checked the peephole first and saw him. Scared the shit out of me.”

  Damn, there was a lot of shit scaring going on this morning. Not knowing the identity of the man or his intentions, and that Eden was alone and unprotected, scared the shit out of him, too. He might have used her as bait during the Winters case, but she’d been surrounded by CORE agents and never in a position where harm would come to her. This time around though…this time there were too many uncertainties.

  He decided then and there that under no circumstance would she be allowed to remain alone. At any time. Screw her dates, real or imagined. He refused to lose her twice. Being near her again had solidified what he’d known all along…he’d never stopped caring.

  Hudson remained on the phone with her, listening to Eden’s nervous babbling about the poor rat dog’s bitty bladder, until he reached her townhouse. He ended the call and raced up the steps. A newspaper sat at the front door.

  The door swung open as he was about to pick up the paper. “Is it another DVD?” Eden asked in a hushed, conspiratorial tone.

  “Looks like your morning paper.”

  “I don’t get the paper.”

  He looked up at her, took in the fear brightening her puffy eyes, then glanced back to the paper. With the cuff of his jacket, he gave the folded paper a shove. A blur of black and white opened, revealing a familiar manila envelope.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered. “He’s killed again.”

  *

  Eden’s stomach cramped as she sat inside CORE’s evidence and evaluation room. The DVD jacket had been checked for fingerprints, but as before, nothing had been found.

  While Rachel readied the DVD for viewing and Hudson finished talking with Ian in the hallway, she waited with nervous anticipation and morbid curiosity. Maybe the doctor hadn’t killed someone this time, or maybe, if he had murdered another victim, they’d find new clues to help them stop him from killing again.

  She clutched her churning belly and wished for the umpteenth time that she hadn’t drank all those beers last night. What had she been thinking? And when she’d woken up and found her cell phone lying next to her with Hudson’s number on the screen, she’d panicked. In her drunken stupor, she’d almost called him. Thank God she’d passed out before that mistake had happened. With the mood she’d been in last night, she might have thrown herself at him.

  And if they’d had sex, what then? Would they fall back into their old pattern of having mind-blowing sex on a regular basis while tiptoeing around their emotions? She honestly didn’t think she could handle another relationship with Hudson on those terms. But she also wasn’t sure she could expose her emotions, her reasons for having been so disgusted and angry with him after the Winters debacle, either. Even her family had no clue what had happened to her when she’d been in high school, or how that event had shaped her—good and bad—into the person she’d ultimately become…an obsessive-compulsive, introverted loner. No one had needed to know how she’d made a fool of herself, or how she continued to let that night rule her existence. Her family had always admired her strength—why disappoint them, or herself, again?

  She smoothed her hair, then tightened her ponytail. Besides, what would be the point of telling Hudson anything? By the end of the month she’d move to New York to take the Network job. When that happened, there would be no future with Hudson. He was just as married to his career as she was to hers.

  The door to the evidence and evaluation room opened, and Hudson entered. Wearing his ugly shit kickers, jeans and another thermal shirt—this one a lighter shade of gray—he made her heart jump and her stomach coil with something other than hangover nausea.

  She tamped down the lust coursing through her veins and shifted in her chair. “Is Ian joining us?”

  “No, he’s heading to D.C. for business and doesn’t have time.”

  “Poo,” Rachel said. “He’s going to miss the early morning matin�
�e.”

  Hudson cracked a small smile. “Bummer for him.” He looked to Eden. “Ah…you don’t have to watch this. Actually, Ian suggested you use his office while we review the DVD.”

  She folded her hands and let them rest in her lap. A part of her wanted to jump at Ian’s offer, but the investigative reporter in her demanded she sit through the damned thing. Besides, the killer had sent the DVD to her house. He’d targeted her. And this time, she wanted to be part of the team that stopped him. Not the bait.

  “I appreciate the offer, but I’d rather stay.”

  With his mouth set in a grim line, he stared at her for a moment, then said, “Suit yourself. Ready, Rachel.”

  With a nod, Rachel hit PLAY, and within seconds, the TV screen came to life.

  “Oh my God,” Rachel murmured, and without looking, slumped into a chair.

  Eden suppressed a gasp while a cold shiver momentarily shook her body.

  “Damn,” Hudson muttered with disgust. “Pause it.”

  Rachel hit a button on the remote and the TV went still. A man, grotesquely bound to a chair, filled the screen and Eden suddenly wished she’d taken Ian’s offer. Her empty stomach rolled and sweat beaded along her upper lip. She swiped at her mouth, then looked away.

  “Do you think there’s any way to ID him?” she asked, trying to take her mind off the inevitable. Barfing in CORE’s evidence and evaluation room, in front of Rachel and Hudson, was out of the question. She was Eden Risk, damn it. Hard core. Tough as frozen dog shit. She’d seen dozens of horrific crime scenes and had earned the respect of Chicagoans along with CPD and other law enforcement agencies. She wasn’t a puker unless it was purposeful. And she’d stopped shoving her fingers down her throat years ago when her dentist told her the enamel on her teeth had begun to wear due to acidity.

  Dentist.

  She shifted her gaze back to the screen. “Wait, the victim’s a dentist.”