by J A Whiting
“I’ll get them,” the roommate said.
“Thanks.”
When he disappeared down the hall, Olivia pulled out her credit card, and with trembling fingers, slid it in the crack of the door and jiggled it slightly. She heard the lock pop. During his many renovations, Olivia’s neighbor and father figure, Joe, had learned a good deal about locks and how they worked. When Olivia was in middle school, Joe taught her about locking systems and how to open a simple one with a credit card. You never knew when that could come in handy. Olivia’s Aunt Aggie was none too pleased with Joe for teaching a twelve-year-old how to pick a lock. Thank you, Joe.
“It’s open,” Olivia called to the roommate.
He came down the hall holding the extra keys. “It seemed locked when I tried it.”
“I jiggled it. It must have been stuck,” Olivia offered. She turned the knob and pushed the door open. The roommate stepped into the dark room ahead of her and flicked the wall switch.
“What the…?” he muttered. “Holy, hell.”
Olivia pushed into the room behind the roommate to see what he was commenting on. Her eyes went wide and her heart hammered as she pivoted taking in the strange sight.
Every available piece of wall space was covered with photographs. It was the same photograph, over and over. Each one of them was of Kayla… with Christian.
“God,” Olivia whispered. “God.” The strangeness of the display nearly choked her. She turned in a slow circle taking it all in.
The blinds were pulled down over the windows. One small dresser stood up against the wall space between the two windows. All the drawers were half open with clothes spilling over the tops. A mattress was near the far wall, on the floor, a sheet and a thin blanket crumpled on top of it. A musty, stale smell permeated the space.
“Kayla was here tonight?” Olivia could barely get the words out. “She saw this?”
“Yeah. At least I thought so. I didn’t see them. I was in the kitchen. I just heard Eric talking and a woman’s voice. They were in here.” The guy stood dumbfounded in the center of the room.
The apartment smoke alarm shrieked. Olivia jumped.
“My food’s burning!” The roommate ran from the room.
Olivia turned to look at a long table that ran almost the length of one wall. Eric was using it as a desk and had computer equipment and displays covering most of the space. Some of the displays were on and one was showing a map of Cambridge. A small green dot was blinking. Olivia leaned close. The dot was located on the map on Eric’s street, over Eric’s building. Above the dot, was an “O.”
Olivia’s stomach felt like it was filling with ice water. Her temples pulsed like they were about to explode. She ripped her phone from her pocket and stared at it. She lifted her eyes to the computer display. “Son of a bitch.” Fury rose in her chest and she balled her hand into a fist. She swung her arm up and punched the display with her hand sending it crashing against the wall.
Olivia’s chest rose and fell, her breath came in gasps, in and out, in and out, as rage consumed her. “He’s been tracking me!” she roared. She glared at the phone in her hand and was about to smash it against the desk, when it buzzed with an incoming text from Kayla’s number.
Guess who this is? Hint: it’s not Kayla. Get home. Do not call the police. Keep the phone with you so I know you aren’t making any stops for help. Don’t speak to anyone. There’s a cab outside. Take it home. I’m timing you. Follow these instructions or they’re both dead.
Olivia’s stomach roiled. Her hand holding the phone dropped limply to her side. Her eyes shifted to the wall in a haze. There was a cork board on the wall above Eric’s table. A push pin was stabbed through the middle of a picture holding it in the center of the bulletin board. It was a picture of Kayla with Luke. Olivia’s vision blurred. She placed her hands on the desk to keep from falling over. Her right hand touched something. She shifted her gaze to it. Several black ski masks were scattered across the desk.
Chapter 25
Olivia raced up the stairs, two at a time, to her sixth floor apartment. The exertion of climbing six flights in a state of anxiety and fear made her breath catch in her throat and it nearly gagged her.
She was about to jab the key in the lock but stopped, realizing that she had to compose herself before facing whatever Eric had in store. She needed her wits about her if she and Melissa and Kayla were going to emerge from this confrontation alive.
Olivia moved away from her apartment door, leaned against the wall, and focused on breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. She had to be ready for whatever Eric was going to throw at her. She needed to take all of the tension and terror flowing through her veins and concentrate it into energy that she could use against him. Straightening her shoulders, she turned back to her door. She had to help her friends.
Olivia abruptly halted. How would Eric know if I called the police? Damn. She mentally berated herself for being so stupid. She pulled out her phone to make the call, and then hesitated. But would he know? Does he have something on this phone that monitors my calls and texts? Is that even possible? What if I call the police and Eric knows I did it. He’ll kill Melissa and Kayla. Her heart sank. She couldn’t take the chance.
Even though she knew that Eric was tracking her, Olivia inserted her key into the lock as quietly as she could. She pressed her hand against the front door to open it. Her auditory system was on high alert. The living room was dark, the few furniture pieces draped in menacing shadow. She wouldn’t chance flicking on the overhead light. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears.
Olivia shifted her feet two steps into the room trying to remember which parts of the wood floor always squeaked. She slid her feet, slow, inch by inch, over the floor, heading for the hall. She stopped. The tiny blond hairs on her arms stood up. She stood at the edge of the living room, at the corner of the wall. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so she held her breath and leaned her head forward just a tiny bit in order to peer down the hallway. Olivia edged into the hall, shuffled several short steps and moved into the small kitchen.
She heard a groan come from Melissa’s room. Her blood froze. Her body shook and she gripped the counter with both hands trying to collect herself. Tears welled in her eyes. Her body felt like it was floating, her senses buzzing. Olivia was afraid she was about to pass out. She looked at the wall in front of her. The knife rack.
She lifted her hand and removed the smallest knife. A boning knife. The handle fit well in the palm of her hand. The blade was small, only two inches long at most, but it was sharp. And sharp was what she needed.
Olivia turned back into the hallway. She moved her feet, quiet, quiet, while clutching the handle of the knife in her sweaty hand so that the blade pointed behind her.
She paused at Melissa’s bedroom door for just a moment, steeling herself to what she might find inside.
“Hello, Olivia.” Eric’s voice spoke from behind the wooden door.
Olivia sucked in a deep breath, grabbed the knob and flung the door open with such force that it thunked against the bedroom wall.
The overhead light flashed bright in her eyes, blinding her for a half second. When she saw what was in the room, something between a gasp and a sob caught in her throat.
***
Eric sat in Melissa’s chair. He had pulled it away from the desk and positioned it in the middle of the room close to the bed. His left hand dangled behind his back. His right hand was bloody. A knife with a long serrated blade was stuck between his legs into the wooden seat of the chair. His lips were turned up in a grin.
Kayla sat on the floor between the bed and the chair. She was gagged and her hands and feet were bound. There were patches of blood on her shirt where Olivia could see the fabric had slices in it. Her forehead had a wide gash with blood running down the side of her face. Rage flashed in Kayla’s eyes.
Melissa was on her back, unconscious, on the bed, her hands and feet bound by heavy rope which was als
o tightened around her neck. Streaks of blood stained the pale skin of her arms and face. Olivia knew she was alive because she could make out the slight rising and falling of her chest.
Olivia’s stomach clenched. Her vision was swimming. Her fingers squeezed around the handle of the knife she was holding. She wanted to plunge it into Eric’s heart.
“Took you long enough,” Eric sneered. “I thought they might both be dead by the time you got here. Now I have the three meddling bitches in one room.”
Olivia took a step into the bedroom her eyes blazing. “Bastard.” She moved two steps towards Kayla.
“Stand right there. Don’t you move.” Eric’s voice was hard, and then it turned taunting. He leaned back in the chair. He nodded his head towards Kayla and kicked her in the back. Olivia winced. “This bitch is nothing but trouble,” he said. “Just like you.”
“What do you want, Eric? What the hell is wrong with you?” Olivia asked. “She’s supposed to be your friend.”
“I didn’t want a friend, Olivia. I loved her. But I was always just the friend.” Eric’s eyes narrowed. His face muscles tightened. He tipped his head towards Kayla. “Christian was never good to you. He deserved to die.” He looked back at Olivia. “But even with that scum bag out of the picture, I wasn’t right for her. She doesn’t want me. Now she wants Luke. That coward. I only wanted to make her happy. I’m going to make her happy. She can go join her dear, sweet Christian. I won’t stop her. I’ll help her.”
“This isn’t how you treat people you love.” Olivia tried to stall for time to figure out what she could do.
“Loved,” Eric said. “Past tense.”
“Lots of people get rejected in love, Eric. You aren’t the first one it’s happened to.”
“Oh, shut up, Olivia. Spare me.”
Olivia took another step forward. “What I can’t understand is why you would try to pin the murders on Kayla. You knew she was going to Christian’s Halloween party that night. You knew what she was wearing. All black, the ski mask. So you wore the same thing. And you must be the anonymous caller who told the police that Kayla was at Christian’s the night he was killed. You even told us that she was arrested for assault. You made sure everything was pointing at Kayla.”
Kayla looked at Eric out of the corner of her eye.
“I thought you were smart, Olivia. You need an explanation?” He snorted. “If the cops suspected her, if she was in trouble, wouldn’t she go to her dear friend Eric for comfort? Wouldn’t she come to me to help her? Wouldn’t she see that I was the one who loved her? The cops might have arrested her, but they never would have been able to build a case against her. I got rid of her love interest and set things up so suspicion would fall on her. Accused and alone, she was supposed to run to me.” Eric’s face hardened. He glanced at Kayla, his eyes full of hate. “But that didn’t happen. She preferred the company of the coward.”
Adrenaline pumped through Olivia’s body. “Trying to get Kayla arrested for murder is a strange way of showing your love for her.”
“Shut up.” Eric’s eyes narrowed. “I would have liked to have seen your face when you found the ski mask on your door. Did it scare you?”
“You’re a freak,” Olivia said.
“Toss me your cell phone” Eric ordered.
Olivia’s blood boiled. She pulled the phone from her pocket. Her arm jerked up and she whipped the phone at Eric’s head. He ducked, reached out his hand and caught it. He gave Olivia a warning look as he placed the phone in his pocket.
“No calls for help from you.” He smiled. His lips were thin and tight.
“Did you have fun tracking me around the city? Psycho.”
Color rose in Eric’s face.
Melissa let out a soft moan. Olivia flicked her eyes to her. “Mel.”
“Your bitch friend can’t hear you. I gave her a little something. Something I concocted myself.” Eric brought his left hand around to the front. He was holding a syringe and his eyes glinted with delight when he looked up at Olivia.
“She better stay alive, you son of a bitch.” Olivia’s left hand was clenching into a ball while her right hand tightened on the knife that she held out of Eric’s view.
“Or, what?” Eric snorted. He lifted the syringe and turned to Kayla. “Kayla’s turn for a little injection.” Kayla shrunk away from him.
Fury exploded in Olivia’s veins and she flung herself at Eric with such force that he toppled over in the chair with Olivia falling on top of him. The syringe dropped from his hand. Kayla scooted away from them on her butt and tried to stand.
Olivia slashed at Eric’s arms and upper chest with the boning knife. Eric shrieked and fought Olivia for the weapon. As they tussled for it, the knife fell, clattered across the floor, and slid under the bed.
Eric put his hands around Olivia’s neck and tightened, his eyes savage. Olivia grabbed at his hands. She tried to knee him but he was on top of her now and she couldn’t get enough leverage to do any damage. She scratched wildly towards his face with her fingers, but he pushed hard on her neck and fully extended his arms so that his head was just out of her reach. Olivia gagged. Her eyes bugged.
Kayla’s hands were bound by a length a rope to her feet which hampered her ability to get up. She rolled onto her side and used her elbow to give her body the push it needed to hobble up. The rope was too short to allow Kayla to fully stand. She hunched over, her hands close to her feet. Hopping and shuffling, she crossed closer to the fight.
With one hand, Eric grabbed handfuls of Olivia’s hair, lifted her head and smashed it onto the floor. Again and again, he pounded her head. Olivia’s vision was sparkling, darkness flirting at the edges of her sight.
Like a wild woman, Olivia smashed her fist into Eric’s neck trying to crush his Adam’s apple. The searing pain halted Eric’s attack on her just long enough for Olivia to scramble out from under him and crawl a few feet to where the boning knife lay just under the bed.
He grabbed her legs and pulled her away from the bed as she was about to grab the knife. She yanked her legs trying to loosen them from Eric’s grip. One foot came free from his hold. Olivia kicked with force into his shin making him bend at the waist. Olivia took the moment to roll her body into his legs, toppling him. They both tried to scramble to a standing position. Kayla hurtled her body on top of Eric. Olivia crawled under the bed and grasped the knife.
Eric untangled himself from Kayla and scurried across the floor on his hands and knees to the bedroom door, gasping. He stood and whirled, his chest and arms cut and bloody.
Panting, Olivia struggled to her feet holding the knife and she hauled herself into the middle of the room to protect her injured friends. She lowered her chin to level her eyes at Eric. They flashed like a feral animal. While there was breath left in her body, she would not let anything else happen to Melissa or Kayla.
Eric backed out of the room and pulled the bedroom door closed with a fast yank. Olivia stood in the room, blinking. What is he up to? She bent and slashed at Kayla’s binds, releasing her. Kayla pulled the gag off. Olivia knelt and reached for Kayla’s shirt to check her injuries.
In between gasps, Kayla said, “It’s nothing. Just superficial cuts. He was taunting me, said he wouldn’t kill me until you got here.”
Olivia ran to Melissa and touched the side of her neck to check for a pulse. “She’s okay.” Her eyes filled with tears of relief. “Where’s a phone?” Olivia asked. “We’ll call for help.”
“That bastard took our phones.” Kayla rubbed her wrists where the ropes had cut into her skin.
Hearing a sloshing sound in the hallway, Olivia and Kayla pivoted their eyes to the closed bedroom door. Olivia hurried to the door and pressed her ear up against it. The smell of oil or lighter fluid flooded her nostrils. She turned the knob and opened the door a crack, clutching the knife tightly in her hand. The hallway floor was wet.
Eric stood in the living room at the end of the hallway. His arm came up and he threw s
omething towards Olivia. A lighter hit the floor and sent a wall of flames roaring into the air. Olivia slammed the bedroom door, stumbled back, lost her balance and fell onto her butt, gasping. The angry flames snarled and cracked at the hallway walls.
“Gasoline. He set the place on fire.” Olivia scrambled to her feet.
“Son of a bitch.” Kayla hurried to the window facing the front of the building and looked out. It was a six story drop to the sidewalk.
“Melissa.” Olivia stumbled to the bed and shook her friend’s shoulder. Melissa moved a bit but did not open her eyes. Olivia used her knife to cut the ropes away from her friend’s hands, neck, and feet.
“Eric injected Melissa with something,” Kayla said, still peering out the front window. “She isn’t hurt. The blood is from me. It got on Eric’s hands and it got smeared onto Melissa.” Kayla turned away from the window. “There’s no fire escape this way.” She cursed and rushed to the window that looked out onto the side of the property. The fire escape’s metal flooring was broken off and did not reach to Melissa’s window. It stopped at the end of the other sixth floor apartment.
“What the hell!” Kayla slammed her hand against the wall. “There’s no goddamn fire escape here either. You need to sue the owner of this building.”
“I’ll put that on my list of things to do.” Olivia ran to the bedroom door and placed her palm against it. She yanked her hand back. “It’s red hot already. We can’t go out this way.” Despair pulled at Olivia’s muscles and turned them to rubber. Her panicked eyes flashed about the room. The window. It’s the only way out. “Bed sheets. Let’s pull the sheet off the bed. There must be others in the closet. We’ll tie them together and go out the window.”
Kayla’s mouth was open. “You’re nuts. Bed sheets won’t hold us. And, what about Melissa? How are we going to get her down some bed sheets?”
“Is there a better idea? If there is, let’s do it.” Olivia stared at Kayla and when she didn’t respond with a suggestion, Olivia hurried to the bed and pulled back the blanket. She tugged at the sheet on Melissa’s bed, pulling it gently off of her friend.
