Nikki's Secret

by William Malmborg

  THUNK! THUNK!

  God, what does he want? she asked herself while walking to the inner stairway door, a somewhat creepy realization that he had probably been listening for the shower to cease before coming down filling her mind.

  “Good morning,” Bill said once the door was open.

  “Morning,” she said back, his worn look catching her off guard. “You okay?”

  “What?” he asked with a yawn, then, before she could reply, “Oh, couldn’t sleep.”

  Kimberly nodded.

  “You start class soon?”

  She nodded again and said, “Will be leaving around nine.”

  “Ah, nice. Not so early that it’s a pain to get up every morning, but not so late that you spend half your day just waiting for class to start.”

  Impatience gripped her.

  “Anyhow,” he said. “I was thinking, while you’re gone today I could spend time trying to figure out who this Emily Moore is and possibly where she lives.”

  “Great. Sounds like a good plan.”

  “The thing is I think I need to go online to do that.”

  “So . . . what, you want me to drop you at the library on my way to class or something?”

  “Well, see, they have a two hour limit on the internet there and I have a feeling this might take longer than that, so I was thinking that maybe I could just run my cord down here like I used to do when the Roberts lived here?”

  She didn’t like this idea, but --

  “And I could give you some cash to pay for the day if you like,” he quickly added. “Or we could even arrange to split the bill if you want to share it with me like I used to do with them.”

  “Um . . .” she stalled while thinking about this. “Would we have to keep the doors open for the cord?”

  “No, not at all.” He shook his head. “We actually cut a notch in each, see.”

  She followed his finger and to her surprise saw a good-sized notch cut out of the bottom of the door. “Wow, I never noticed that.”

  “There’s one on the basement door as well,” Bill said.

  “Really?” she questioned and then to herself wondered, What else is there in here I’m unaware of? Peepholes in the shower? One in my bedroom?

  “Yep.” He nodded. “Places like this get quite a few modifications from the tenants and most of the time the landlord isn’t even aware of them.”

  “Well . . . I suppose if you think you might be able to figure out more about her and need more time than the library will give you, we can run the cord through.”

  “Wonderful.” He smiled.

  “As for doing some kind of permanent split, let me think about that, okay?”

  “No problem.” He motioned up to his own apartment. “I’ll get everything hooked up if you want to continue getting ready for class.”

  “Okay.” She turned to head back to kitchen where her coffee was waiting but then stopped and asked, “Oh, by the way, don’t let me forget to give you my cell number before I leave so you can let me know if anything happens.”

  “Ah, good idea,” Bill called down. “Will do.”

  With that, Kimberly headed back into the bathroom to finish getting ready, the steam from the shower having dissipated enough for her to see what she was doing.

  Meanwhile Bill went about hooking up his laptop to her router, which, of course, didn’t take long at all, his steps up and down the stairway only echoing twice.

  Then again, given her hair dryer, he could have run up and down them several times and she probably wouldn’t have heard a thing.

  Finished, she headed into her bedroom to get dressed, and then returned to the front of her apartment to check the connection.

  “Hey, I’m all done,” she called up to him through the open doorways.

  Up in his apartment she heard a squeak of a desk chair and then footsteps as he came toward the door. “Okay,” he said. “Let me grab my phone.”

  “Of course, I won’t be able to talk today, so let’s just keep it to texts,” Kimberly said once the numbers had been exchanged.

  “Oh yeah, no problem. I prefer texting anyway.”

  “Great.” She pocketed her phone. “Well, I gotta run.”

  “When will you be back?”

  “Um, probably around four.” She paused. “Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious.”

  “Okay then. Let me know if anything crazy happens.”

  “Will do. Have a good day.”

  “Yep, thanks.”

  He started back up the stairs, which she watched for a second before closing the door. Hesitation on whether or not to lock it followed.

  Do you trust him?

  The fact that she couldn’t answer YES right away caused her to press in the little lock tab. At the same time she didn’t not trust him. It fell somewhere in-between.

  And it leans toward the YES more than the NO, she admitted.

  He’s still a creep, though. And that was enough for her to be a bit weary of him.

  3

  Knowing it was probably fruitless at the moment given that nothing would have been delivered yet, but unable to help herself, NIU_Nikki paid a visit to the mailboxes at Kimberly’s place to see if she could figure out who the guy living upstairs was. To her surprise the trip was not fruitless at all, not when the guy upstairs had printed his name in big bold letters on a piece of paper that was secured to the front of the box with long strips of shipping tape – probably to waterproof it, if that was even possible.

  A sense of familiarity about the name hit, though she couldn’t place it. Rather than dwell on this, she quickly snapped a photo of the name with her camera, and then headed back to her car, feet walking at a normal, nothing wrong here, pace.

  Where have I seen it before? she asked herself once she was behind the wheel.

  Nothing jumped out at her, and for all she knew her mind could have seen the name printed on the box a dozen times without even realizing it, which was why it seemed familiar now. The brain did odd things like that from time to time. She had learned this during her freshman year at college; during the happy time last year before everything once again crumbled around her.

  Before Nikki ruined everything.

  But was it really her fault?

  The thought, which came out of nowhere, completely caught her off guard.

  Devastation followed.

  What if he was getting ready to dump me anyway? What if Nikki came around simply because he was looking for someone else? What if –

  NO!

  Teeth clenched, she tried keeping her mind focused on Nikki. Without her, things would have been fine. Without her, the two would have continued to be happy. Without her . . . happy pictures of a momma with her newborn baby appeared and brought tears to her eyes. Anger too.

  Without Nikki . . .

  You can’t change what happened so don’t dwell on it!

  But at least I can make it so no one else ever goes through what I did.

  This brought a smile to her face.

  It didn’t last long.

  How could it when so many horrible memories were constantly floating around inside her head, all thanks to people like Nikki.

  It’s your fault.

  NO!

  Yes, it is.

  The calmness of her inner voice was no match for the protests that came from elsewhere in her mind, protests that were fruitless given that she knew the truth.

  You can’t lie to yourself.

  The words were his and had been spoken to her as a way of softening the blow she had known was coming, a blow that had forced her hand in going through with a decision that had been plaguing her for several days at that point. Only things hadn’t quite worked out the way she thought they would have. If they had . . .

  Happily ever after, she said to herself.

  A new sad smile appeared on her face.

  It would never have taken that direction.

  Realizations like this only ever arrived afte
r things had taken an ugly turn. Why she could never see such outcomes beforehand was a mystery.

  If you had known what would you have done?

  She had been thinking about this a lot lately, her mind not wanting to admit what she knew to be fact. She also didn’t want to admit that things had probably worked out better this way, because it allowed her to be free. Had she acted on her initial rage that probably wouldn’t have been the case.

  But you never really wanted him dead so you never would have gone through with it.

  As much as she wanted to believe this, she wasn’t sure if she could. The hurt she had felt back then had created a volatile mix of anger and sadness that had left her mind in a state where things couldn’t be fully processed to the point of making rational decisions. Thankfully, things were better now.

  And because of this everything is working.

  For the most part.

  Her run-ins with this William guy from upstairs were proving disastrous, but thankfully, she would fix that.

  And once he is gone . . .

  Well, she wasn’t really sure what it would be like, though her mind kept seeing the ‘shields are down’ moment from Independence Day. The comparison was so ridiculous, however, that she didn’t want to focus on it. Instead, she wanted to try and figure out a way of removing the guy from the picture in a way that wouldn’t draw attention to the house and Kimberly.

  Could you make it so it looks like he was the one that killed her?

  Is that even possible?

  She thought about that odd kinky murder thing that had taken place with that college student in Italy a few years back, the one that had gotten quite a bit of news coverage. If possible, she could create something similar, something that looked as if Mark, Nikki and the guy upstairs were all part of something twisted that exploded in their faces and resulted in a bloody disaster.

  First though, she had to learn a thing or two about this upstairs guy; find out if he was vulnerable enough for her to get at. Just thinking about it already seemed tricky given his location on the second floor. She also didn’t think she would be able to watch him that easily.

  You should have seen if you could finish him off after you hit the car with the Snapple bottle, she told herself.

  At the time, she had just been hoping to get away from him, her panic so great she didn’t know what to do. Looking back, however, she now realized the opportunity to get rid of him had been perfect. No one would have ever known what happened to him. It would have looked like some bizarre random incident out in the middle of nowhere – an attempted car jacking maybe, or a drug deal gone wrong. Things like that happened from time to time out here, especially now that so many low-income families had been moved out from Chicago to DeKalb. Why the government had thought such actions would be beneficial to society was a mystery, one that she remembered her class talking about last year. The goal had been to end the families involvement in gangs, their thinking being if they moved the families out into areas with non-gang families they would be influenced by them to become normal productive citizens. In reality, all the government did was move the gangs out into a new area, one that was actually a decent market place for the drug sales given the college. Even worse, according to some of the students that had been in the class, many of the kids from those families would get money from the government to go to college, but never would actually attend classes. And the money never went toward the books and class supplies like it was supposed to.

  Frustration at this situation momentarily pushed away the feelings she had toward everything else that had been going on in recent days, mostly because of the money she had spent on that first year of college. No one had helped her.

  And no one will if you start going again.

  Will I go again?

  She considered this for several minutes as she maneuvered her car back through the twisty streets of DeKalb, her mind eventually settling on the ‘wait and see’ approach since she had no idea what the outcome of her current path would be. At the moment things seemed to be working, but that didn’t mean they would continue to do so. Plus she had another factor to work into the equation now, one that she was going to focus on a bit.

  Hopefully a solution would present itself.

  Hopefully –

  Her phone buzzed.

  She looked down at the name on the screen and smiled.

  A moment later, she pulled her car into her parking spot outside of her apartment and read the message, her mind taking a moment to think up a reply.

  Once that was taken care of she stepped out of her car and headed into her place, her mind hoping she would have a decent wireless connection today and that she would be able to use it find out information about the guy upstairs.

  Too bad Dominick isn’t around still.

  The boy had been a computer wiz and could have found out everything there was to know about him.

  But he had to go.

  Of this, there was no question. Leaving him alive would have been a mistake.

  But so soon?

  This thought did leave room for some speculation. Had she known she might need his expertise again then leaving him alive might have been a good idea? At the same time the longer he was left alive the greater the chances were that he would spill something about what he had done for her, or, accidentally leave a trail pointing toward her.

  And you would have needed to keep him interested.

  Of everything, that would have been the most difficult because she had not really been attracted to him at all. Sure, she had thought it cool that he had ejaculated upon his death, but that had been more of a ‘wow, that was unexpected’ moment than a ‘this guy was great’ moment.

  Her phone buzzed a second time.

  Once again, she smiled.

  Sadness followed.

  You have no choice, she reminded herself. It has to be done.

  I know, another part of her mind said, the part that was mourning some of the events to come.

  Why did life always have to get so complicated?

  Nothing was ever simple.

  All she wanted to do was make Kimberly pay for what she had done; make her pay for ruining one of the happiest moments of her life. While a bit tricky due to the desire to get away with everything, it still should have been pretty straightforward. All she had to do was follow the plan she had laid out, one that had left room for some alternative steps just in case certain things didn’t pan out the way she had hoped they would.

  But you didn’t plan for this.

  Hell, she hadn’t even considered anything like this happening. Who would have? It was unreal. It was –

  Don’t dwell on it!

  Easier said than done!

  Thankfully, she had some work to do, which would be a bit of a distraction. If, that was, the wireless from the college reached her. Most of the time it did, but sometimes it didn’t. Whenever this happened she was forced to head out into areas that had unsecured wireless connections. Not difficult to find, but still a pain since she preferred doing everything from the comfort of her own home.

  Home?

  The word brought about some dismay because this crappy little place was not what she had envisioned herself living in as a child. Nope. And unlike most children, her dreams of her future hadn’t been unrealistic fantasies that only occurred to Disney characters. Everything had been simple and down to earth; she would grow up, fall in love with a charming man, get married, have kids and live in a house with a yard perfect for the children and whatever pets they owned to play in.

  Instead . . .

  She looked around at the dump she was in, the dump that didn’t even have all its windows because the last tenant had ripped out the air conditioner rather than taking the time to unscrew it, which had shattered the window. Not that she would have ever used the window, not when it simply looked out at a gravel driveway and dumpster. Still, it would have been nice to have the option to view such things if she wanted.

  A
ll because some idiot was in a hurry and because the landlord is too cheap to fix anything.

  But at least you talked the rent down because of it.

  This latter was a plus, especially since money had grown tight. What had once been a pretty impressive savings account was now in danger of drawing fees due to the lack of money within. College was to blame. Not just the classes, but everything that encompassed one’s life when going to school, which was probably why her family had refused to pay for it.

  ‘A waste of time,’ her father had said.

  ‘And money,’ his girlfriend had added.

  ‘And money,’ her father had agreed with a nod. He then added, ‘It’s better to find a job and stick with it until you rise to the top.’

  ‘And then get fired when the company moves to Mexico?’ she had said, the words leaving before she could contemplate the wisdom of such a statement.

  Unpleasant memories followed, not because she had taken a beating that night or anything – her father wasn’t the type to ever lay a hand on her in that way – but because after the argument that took place, her father had agreed with the girlfriend that they should kick her out for a few days so she could see what living like a bum would be like. How this would teach her anything was lost on her, but since the girlfriend thought it was a good idea her father had as well, thus she had been forced to leave. Adding to the dilemma of what she would do was that she knew her mother wouldn’t take her in, not after she had made it clear all those years earlier that she never wanted to see her daughter again after she had chosen to live with her father after the divorce. Nature had decided to fuck with her that night as well by drenching her in rain, almost as if it remembered a statement she had once made about how being homeless wouldn’t be bad during the summer months.

  Distracted by her memories, she failed to realize that her computer had not just finished opening but had also automatically connected to the NIU wireless network. Once she did finally notice this she shifted her focus from those horrible days on the streets back to the present and typed the upstairs guy’s name into Google.

  Surprise at the sheer number of hits arrived.