He sat up.
Toby, who was curled at the foot of the bed, lifted his head and looked at him with eyes that were barely open.
Bill reached down and petted him for a few seconds and then shifted himself out from beneath the covers and went in search of a pair of pants. While doing this Toby put his head back on the bed and covered his eyes with his paws.
Dressed, Bill headed over to his computer and hit the power button, and then headed into the kitchen to make some coffee. While that was brewing, he returned to the computer, typed in his password, and waited for the Windows screen to load up. Had this been a typical morning he would have then switched on the radio to listen to the Eric and Kathy show until the coffee was ready. Today, he simply signed onto the Internet, a statement of ‘next week’ echoing in his head on when he would once again get his writing back under control.
Or sooner if the Nikki situation is resolved.
And if it isn’t?
It was this thought that had kept him up into the early morning hours, a sense of having suffered a setback plaguing him to the point where sleep was impossible.
How could it not be her?
Who else could it be?
The daughter, Emily, had voiced a thought that maybe it was one of her father’s lovers, which, after thinking about it for a while, seemed plausible. The trouble was how would they figure out the identity of the girl. At least with Emily they had had a bit of a hook. Now, they really didn’t have anything.
Even worse, Nicole’s roommate’s boyfriend hadn’t been able to learn anything from the email address Bill had sent to him, a short apology having arrived last night in his own email inbox. It is doubtful this is any type of government inspector or investigator, had followed the statement of apology. Though nice to know, Bill had been fairly certain of this already.
If only you hadn’t replied with the house address, he said to himself.
You had no choice.
As true as the rebuttal was, it did little to help clear away the guilt he felt – not about the website itself, though, just the reply to the email. People (Kimberly and Mark) could bitch and moan about his creation of the site all they wanted, but the fact was that it had been necessary. Without it . . . well, he didn’t want to think about that and quickly signed onto Facebook to distract himself a bit. Not long after that, the coffee pot beeped.
Moving slowly due to his exhaustion, Bill went from his desk to the kitchen and then, two minutes later, came back with a mug of coffee in hand. He then began browsing the web, his fingers first taking him to his normal everyday locations that he often visited when at the library. Once the information from those was gathered, he went onto some random sites to kill time, his mind lacking the motivation to do anything else. Actually, that wasn’t true. If he could have, he would have been seeking out information on the NIU_Nikki girl, but since he had no idea where to begin with that, he didn’t even bother to try. As the officer had said the first night, this was a wait and see situation.
Wait for what?
The possible answers that filled his head were chilling. Thankfully, the worst of them were so elaborate that he doubted such events would unfold. Plus, the police could be there quickly if needed.
But she probably knows that and will plan for it.
This thought troubled him.
Sadly, there was nothing he could do about it.
Wait and see.
He sighed.
Sitting back and letting things play out was not his style. He liked to be proactive. He liked to shape things around him rather than having them shape him.
But now he had no choice.
At least he didn’t think he did.
If there was a path he could take that would help put an end to this situation he would follow it, but from where he sat it didn’t look like that was the case.
Exhausted, frustrated, and bored, Bill soon found himself switching the Internet cord from his main computer to his porn computer. No sexual desire was really present when he did this, but that didn’t matter. One would develop as he downloaded video after video and before he knew it, the day would probably be half over.
That was how things like this had always worked in the past, only then he hadn’t wanted to kill time. Instead, he had been distracted by his addiction and eventually dismayed by the wasted hours. Now, it was just something to do. Had his writing been going well he probably wouldn’t have even considered signing on to look at the porn until he was finished with his ten pages.
2
HEY MARK, JUST WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT IT ISN’T THE DAUGHTER LIKE WE THOUGHT IT WAS, Kimberly texted, a realization that she should do a better job of keeping him informed guiding her hand.
Five minutes later, her phone beeped.
She was eating a bowl of Life cereal at this point. Necessity rather than hunger had instigated the meal. A three-hour class followed by a six-hour Steak and Shake shift loomed before her. On the surface, it didn’t seem like much, but for someone who had been dealing with the stress that she had endured these last few days, just the idea of leaving the house was almost too much to bear.
Cereal finished, she opened her phone. Sure enough, the message was from Mark. It read WOW! THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW. ANY IDEA WHO IT COULD BE?
NOT REALLY, she typed. SOUNDS LIKE THE GUY WAS SLEEPING WITH A LOT OF HIS FEMALE STUDENTS THOUGH SO IT COULD BE ONE OF THEM.
Kimberly waited for a reply, but none came so she cleaned out the cereal bowl and then headed up to knock on Bill’s door to find out when he wanted to go to the car dealership.
“Anytime,” he said.
Kimberly nodded and then asked, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Hmm,” was all she could think to say.
“We could go now if you want to get it out of the way,” Bill said. “I’m sure they’re open.”
“Okay. Meet you down by the car?”
He nodded.
Kimberly returned to her apartment and went in search of her purse, which she eventually found next to the box she was using as a coffee table. Gotta find a real one soon, she noted to herself and then headed outside.
Bill was waiting in the garage.
“Anything left during the night?” she asked.
“Nope,” he said. “Looks like she took the evening off.”
Relief and disappointment arrived, the latter being due to the knowledge that something more needed to happen for the police to put a stop to this – unless they were able to uncover who she was through the dating site profiles. If that were the case then she would gladly welcome the lack of harassment from this point onward.
BEEP!
Kimberly paused in backing the car down the driveway to see who the text was from. “Oh, it’s Mark again,” she said.
“What’s he want?” Bill asked.
“Your number actually.”
“Really? Why?”
“Probably so we can all stay in touch and let each other know what is going on. Here.” She handed him the phone. “Type in your number for him.”
“Huh,” Bill said.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. I’m not used to people calling me William if they know me as Bill.” With that, he typed in his number and then handed her the phone.
“Maybe he’s just being polite?” Kimberly suggested.
“Could be.”
Nothing else was said as Kimberly maneuvered them out of the neighborhood. Then, “Okay, tell me where I’m going.”
Bill did.
Soon they were pulling into the parking lot of the car dealership.
“Want me to wait here just in case something is still wrong?” Kimberly asked.
“Good idea, thanks.”
His phone buzzed.
He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the message. “HEY WILLIAM, IT’S MARK,” he read aloud. “JUST WANTED TO TEST OUT THE NUMBER AND MAKE SURE YOU HAD MINE.”
“William again,” Kimberly said.
“Yeah,” Bill said.
“Maybe that’s his way of making sure you know he won’t be friends with you given what you did to him with the Nikki profile.”
“Could be,” he said with a shrug, one that told her he was unfazed by this. “Okay, be right back.”
“Yep.”
Kimberly waited.
BEEP!
She opened her phone, eyes expecting to see that it was Bill telling her the car was good. It was Mark.
ANY IDEA WHO THE OTHER GIRLS WERE THAT WERE SLEEPING WITH PROFESSOR MOORE?
NO, Kimberly replied.
I WONDER IF KISH WOULD HAVE A LIST OF GIRLS THAT ATTENDED HIS CLASSES? came a minute later.
KISH? Kimberly asked.
No reply.
IS THAT WHERE HE WORKED? she asked.
Finally, after nearly five minutes, YEAH, DIDN’T YOU KNOW THAT?
NO, Kimberly replied. WHERE’D YOU LEARN IT?
FACEBOOK.
Shit, everyone is learning stuff there, she said to herself. She then wondered if Bill knew this too.
The answer came shortly after that once he returned to the car to tell her everything was good. “With the exception of my outrageous deductible,” he added.
“That sucks,” Kimberly said. “Hey, do you have any idea where Professor Moore taught?”
“I’m guessing NIU,” he said.
“Huh.”
“Why?”
“Oh, Mark says he worked over at Kish. Said he learned it on Facebook.”
“Could be.” He shrugged. “I didn’t really look at employment, just his address.”
Kimberly considered this.
“Anyhow, I’ll see you back at the house,” Bill said.
“Okay.” Kimberly maneuvered herself around so that she could leave the parking lot. Not long after that, she was sitting at her desk looking at Professor Moore’s Facebook profile. Sure enough, he was listed as being employed at the Kishwaukee Community College.
So, that’s that, she said to herself.
Deep down inside, however, something didn’t feel right. She couldn’t pinpoint it, though, and didn’t really have time to dwell on it, not if she actually wanted to participate in the classes she had forked over thousands of dollars to attend.
Outside Bill pulled up.
Kimberly quickly went out to meet him, a thought having occurred to her.
“You could probably recognize his girl if you saw her, right?” Kimberly asked.
“I think so.”
“Well, why don’t you take a look at Professor Moore’s friends list and see if anyone jumps out at you.”
“Not a bad idea,” Bill admitted. “But do you think he’d really be so bold as to friend students on Facebook?”
“It’s college, not high school. He could post a status that he was fuck buddies with some of his students and technically no one could say a thing.” Truth be told, the school probably would take issue with it, but still, it got the point across.
“Okay, I’ll take a look.”
“Great.”
“So, when do you go to class?”
“I’m going to leave in an hour.”
“And then you work tonight as well?”
“Yep.”
“Wow, long day.”
“Yeah,” Kimberly agreed. But at least it would keep her mind busy. Sitting around the apartment waiting for something to happen would be torture.
“Want me to come watch your car tonight and see if she does anything?”
Kimberly shrugged. “Up to you. Think she will?”
“Don’t know, maybe?”
“If you do, and if she shows up, don’t do anything yourself, okay? Just call the police.”
Bill nodded.
“I’m serious,” she said.
“Me too,” Bill said. He held up his arm to show her the bandage where she had bit him, and then pointed to his windshield. “I’ve learned my lesson with this bitch.”
3
Amy’s day was not off to good start, if the word start could even really be used since she never officially went to bed. The trouble had arrived around two in the morning, once she had finally finished dismembering Mark. Thinking things nearly complete she had had gone into the kitchen to grab some garbage bags only to discover the box beneath the sink was empty. Even worse, a search of the apartment revealed she had nothing whatsoever to hold the pieces in until she could get a bag. She also knew she couldn’t go shopping in her present condition, not when Mark’s body had done a nice job staining her with blood.
Not wanting to climb into the shower with the pieces, she attempted to clean herself off at the sink, but then found another item that needed to be added to her shopping list: paper towels. Five sheets was all she had left and while they were of a good quality that could withstand quite a bit of abuse, they weren’t enough to complete the entire job.
She had no choice. She had to shower with Mark’s body.
First things first, she piled all the pieces toward the front of the tub so that she had room to stand. What she didn’t realize, and never would have until this situation, was that the shower head wouldn’t twist up far enough for the spray to reach the backside of the tub. Leaning forward, she tried to clean herself off, but it was no use, so she eventually decided to move the pieces to the back of the tub so she could point the shower head down upon herself while standing in the front. At first, this worked, but then, once the water soaked everything behind her, the pieces started to slide down toward the drain. Attempting to re-stack them proved disastrous, especially when the head rolled into her ankles, Mark’s eyes looking up at her as the shower spray pummeled the lifeless pupils.
Seeing this, Amy couldn’t help herself and vomited all over the body. It was the first time in nearly four years that she threw up, and it left her feeling hollow and useless.
Not long after that the hot water ran out and she was forced to finish cleaning off the blood in the cold spray. By the time she was finished she felt as if she had been standing in a freezer for hours, and barely spent anytime drying herself off before climbing beneath the bed sheets to warm up.
No sleep followed, though she was exhausted enough.
And then came the texts from Kimberly and the eventual information that Professor Moore had been sleeping with several of his students, not just her and, if things had worked out the way he wanted, Nikki.
Heartbroken all over again, Amy could do nothing but lay in her bed crying. It was all too much. Everything that had happened -- Professor Moore cheating on her, his death, Mark, her plans to kill Nikki, her dwindling finances -- she just couldn’t hold back the growing despair that this mixture brought upon her.
I don’t care if I die tonight.
Just as long as I make Kimberly pay.
Of course, she would still do her best to make sure everything went according to plan, but if things didn’t, it wouldn’t be much of a loss.
Just make sure you don’t survive.
Spending the rest of her life in jail was not something she could handle, not when the thoughts about Professor Moore and Mark would be a constant companion. No. If things did end up taking a bad turn she would make sure the police ended things for her.
Mark’s phone buzzed.
She picked it up and looked at it, her mind wishing he was still in bed with her so he could laugh about how annoying his mother was being.
If only you hadn’t texted him from Nikki’s phone last night, she told herself.
But you were going to kill him eventually anyway.
She wondered if this was true. Would she have done it? It was a question she had asked herself several times as their sudden relationship had blossomed; one that she had never really answered completely.
If only someone else had taken the bait, someone who you could have lured in, fucked and killed without any real thought.
If only . . .
She had be
en using this statement a lot in the last several months, her thoughts always directed backward in hopes of being able to change something.
Would it get better?
Once all was said and done and she moved on would she meet someone else and fall in love and this time have them all to herself so that the two could live happily ever after?
You probably could have with Mark.
The thought, like always, brought the sadness back up to the surface, which was something she didn’t want.
If only I could shut down my mind and not think about anything!
Or better yet, erase things that I never want to think about again.
Would such a thing ever be possible?
It isn’t now, so don’t dwell on it.
Taking this advice she sent a reply to Mark’s mom telling her he was fine, and then decided to get up and go to the store so she could finish what she had started. After that, she would begin the final stages of her plan, one that might go more smoothly than previously thought thanks to the phone numbers she now had.
4
I FOUND HER.
Kimberly stared at the text while sitting in her class, the phone carefully tucked up under the desk so as not to be noticed by anyone else.
REALLY? she typed.
Why would he send this if he hadn’t? she asked a second later.
YEAH, he replied. Then, CAN YOU TALK?
NOT YET, she typed.
Nikki's Secret Page 30
