And this would help explain the address situation.
After all, why would they use her address for the over eighteen age information if it wasn’t the correct address? When going this route to uncover her address Dominick had showed her information on how much trouble webmasters could get in for not having the information on hand, thus she knew they could also get in serious trouble for providing incorrect information on where it was all kept.
She shifted her thoughts to the agreement on meeting later in the day. With this came a smile. Figuring out a way of getting inside the writer’s place had been daunting, but now, if things worked out the way she envisioned them, it would be simple. Of course, he would probably recognize her right away, but still, just the idea that she would show up at the door without issue might make him doubt his own thoughts on the matter. It was perfect. Everything was coming together.
Couldn’t have planned it any better.
Actually, if she had tried to plan it all out she probably would never have gotten this far. Instead, she had mapped out a few simple steps, the most important of which was luring in Mark (when thinking about it she had just envisioned a guy desperate for sex) so she could get a hold of his semen. Little did she know his phone would be one of the most important tools, especially after he had already made contact with William and Kimberly.
It is almost like fate is helping guide things.
But to what end?
She pushed the thought from her mind and looked at the clock on her computer. According to the guy at Steak and Shake, Kimberly worked a three to eight shift today, so sometime within that period would be perfect for meeting up with the writer.
HEY, HOW DOES FOUR SOUND FOR SWINGING BY WITH AMY? she sent to William’s phone.
UM, KIM WORKS TONIGHT UNTIL EIGHT. WOULD IT BE BETTER TO WAIT FOR HER?
THAT IS TOO LATE FOR ME. THIS WILL JUST BE A QUICK POP IN SO YOU CAN SEE THAT I’M NOT NIKKI.
Time passed, during which Amy realized she had made a mistake in her message.
Will he catch it?
If so, what will you say?
As it turned out she didn’t have to worry. His next reply was a simple OKAY, SEE YOU THEN.
Amy sighed, and then scolded herself for not re-reading everything before she sent it. One little slip could ruin everything.
It still could.
If he just decides to re-read his messages for some reason he could notice your slip-up and start to question things.
BEEP!
Great, he has noticed it, she said to herself while checking the message. It was from Mark’s mom.
Another sigh escaped her lips.
She couldn’t wait until tomorrow when all this would be over.
Speaking of which, you really need to dump Mark’s body.
The thought was like an alarm clock going off in her head, one that told her she was running late. She had gotten so preoccupied with communicating with the writer and figuring out a way of getting into his apartment that she had totally forgotten about the need to bag up Mark.
No time like the present.
With that thought, she grabbed the box of garbage bags she had bought and headed into the bathroom, her mind and body not looking forward to the grim task that lay ahead.
8
WELL NOW IT MIGHT NOT BE HER ACCORDING TO MARK.
Kimberly looked at the message and asked, WHY NOT?
WRONG CAR.
BUT MAYBE SHE HAS TWO? Kimberly suggested after some thought.
MARK SAYS IT ISN’T POSSIBLE.
Kimberly didn’t know what to say.
Another message arrived.
HE IS BRINGING HER OVER LATER TODAY THOUGH SO I CAN MEET HER FACE TO FACE.
REALLY? AND SHE AGREED TO THIS? It seemed unlikely that Amy would agree to such a thing if she was the one responsible, especially knowing she had been seen.
HE ISN’T GOING TO TELL HER.
WHY?
SEE HOW SHE REACTS ONCE SHE SEES WHERE HE IS TAKING HER.
So, there is still some suspicion on Mark’s part, Kimberly realized. A thought occurred. WHAT TIME?
AROUND FOUR. I TOLD THEM YOU WERE WORKING BUT IT WAS THE ONLY TIME POSSIBLE.
OKAY. Truth was she felt a bit better about not being there for this meeting.
And if anything is left upon your car during your shift it will be another sign that this Amy girl isn’t the one responsible.
Naturally, this led her to ask who was responsible, a question that brought about quite a bit of despair since she once again couldn’t point the finger at anyone. Making this worse was the confidence she had felt earlier at Bill’s discovery. This girl Amy had seemed perfect. Connections to the professor, connections to Mark, recognition by Bill -- how could it not be her?
Frustration seeped into her system, along with a familiar sense of self-pity. Why did things like this happen to her? Hadn’t she been through enough?
She shook her head.
Attempting to earn a college degree was difficult enough without all the shit life had thrown at her.
If only you hadn’t gone to that party.
All those years ago, on a night where she had simply planned to study, her friend had convinced her to come along with her so that she wouldn’t be all alone in an unfamiliar fraternity crowd. Being alone didn’t seem to matter once she hooked up with a guy, however, especially if the ‘alone’ label was attached to Kimberly.
You should have left then and there.
You should have –
STOP!
Should have! Should have! Should have!
No matter how many times she told herself she should have done something different, she couldn’t change what had actually occurred. It just wasn’t possible. She also had no idea if things were actually better off this way. What would have happened if she hadn’t gone to that party? Sure, the horrible event that had occurred that night wouldn’t have happened, but maybe something even worse would have down the road, something that never got a chance to happen with her since she had flunked out after the miscarriage.
After you killed –
Again, she told herself to STOP!
Of course, this did little to prevent the sadness that overwhelmed her. Worse, the sadness was visible to anyone who looked at her, and given that she was still at the school and in a semi-crowded area, people did start to notice. No one said anything, but that didn’t matter to her. Just knowing she was putting on a display was horrific. Thankfully, her car was not too far away. People still noticed her inside, but it wasn’t as bad, and once the worst of the emotions passed she was able to head home.
If I could just stay home.
Unfortunately, going to work wasn’t really optional, not if she wanted to keep the job. On the upside, she did have some time to relax before she had to get ready.
9
Body parts bagged, Amy went to her computer to see if anything needed her attention, but found that nothing new had really unfolded since her last check a few hours earlier. The only exception to this was on one of the dating sites where she had posted a profile, one that was dedicated to people who enjoyed rough sex and rape play. To her surprise, the email wasn’t a solicitation for sex but a warning from a member of the site that she was being too risky. You need to establish trust with the people you communicate with before handing out your address and telling them to try and follow you inside. Once that trust is established you will have scenes that are rewarding and very memorable rather than get yourself raped for real and forever live in fear and disgust of what occurred.
Amy shook her head and then checked to see if this was someone she had messaged in the past. It was. Then, even though it wouldn’t really matter after tonight, she typed up a quick reply that read I want it to be real.
After that, she browsed Facebook for a while to kill some time, her focus being on William’s friend list to see if she could find Nicole at all.
Do you want to kill her too?
The ide
a had appeal, yet also didn’t feel all that necessary; not if her only role in this had been allowing her image to be used.
But what if she does it again for someone else?
What if through a twist of fate you once again find someone you love only to watch as they too start to neglect you thanks to another person using Nicole’s image?
The thought was unsettling.
Thankfully, she also realized it was pretty far fetched.
Still might not be a bad idea to eliminate her at some point in the future.
Wait and see how tonight goes.
And make sure to ask him what her full name is.
Having scrolled through a third of his friends list, she realized the need for a full name. With people like Mark this wouldn’t have been all that necessary, but when someone had over two thousand friends it was.
How many girls named Nicole are there?
She typed NICOLE up in the search box. Fifteen results appeared.
Out of curiosity, she looked at each picture, but again no one really jumped out at her. Even following some of the likely candidates to their own profile and checking out the rest of their pictures didn’t produce a solid connection, though she did find one that carried a strong resemblance to the one in the pictures from the blog. She couldn’t be certain, however, the trouble being the difference in content between the two sets of pictures. In the ones from the blog she was trying to be sexy and provocative, and often had her hair pulled up and out of the way. In the pictures from Facebook this wasn’t the case. In fact, most were candid shots.
And this is why you simply thought Kimberly was the girl.
Seeing someone in a posed sexual situation was a lot different from everyday real life.
A thought on what she would have done if she had realized Kimberly wasn’t the girl from the pictures entered her mind.
You would have gone about things the same way because she was involved.
The address proved this.
The two of them, Kimberly and William, had worked together. Nicole might have had a role that went beyond the pictures as well, though this she wouldn’t know for sure until tonight.
Once William was secured, she would get some answers.
Secured . . .
A question on how to go about securing him entered her mind. It was something she hadn’t really thought about until now, her focus always being on tormenting Kimberly and the eventual cutting of her throat.
Using a knife to subdue someone seemed a bit more complicated, almost improbable. Even with a gun it could prove difficult given that she would need to hold the weapon in one hand while using the other to tie the ropes.
And what if he decides to fight back despite the risk of injury or death to himself?
The outcome of such a decision on his part could ruin everything she hoped to achieve that evening. Both of them would still die, that outcome was not in question, but the look of the scene just wouldn’t be right.
If only I had a taser.
Obtaining such an item between now and four o’clock was out of the question. Even if such an item were available in the local stores, she wouldn’t want to go get one now because its use would leave a trace and the police might check to see who bought one in recent days. Nope. She needed to think up something practical; something she could do with the items on hand.
She wondered if the items she had instructed Mark to purchase had arrived. If so, she could use the handcuffs, which would make subduing William easier since she could instructed him to enclose his own wrists in the links behind his back while keeping a distance with the knife.
Relying on that possibility wouldn’t be good, though; especially given the chance that Kimberly had taken those items inside -- if they even arrived. Even with the higher priced shipping she had instructed him to use, the arrival time could still be in question. One only knew for sure that it had been worth the cost when it actually arrived.
Think!
The demand forced her from the desk, but did little to solve the problem since nothing within her apartment jumped out at her.
She also doubted that Google would provide much help.
Maybe you should just kill him and then wait for her?
She did have Mark’s semen, which would help set the scene. Still, if she could make it look like William and Kimberly had been sexual as well, and that Mark had gotten jealous, killed them and disappeared, it would be better, especially once the media condemned Kimberly for her sexual ways.
A glance at the clock told her she had an hour to think things over. Unsure what to do she got back on the computer and considered a search term for Google that might help her come up with something useful.
10
Bill heard Kimberly leaving for work while he was finishing with the dishes. Once that was done he did a quick check of the apartment to make sure it looked decent and then lit a scented Christmas candle that he found in his linen closet to mask the possible litter box odor. As a rule of thumb, he kept the box pretty clean, but one never really knew what the smell was like when living near it, so the scented candle seemed wise.
Four o’clock.
Anytime now.
Though he wasn’t sure why, he was antsy about this visit. A part of it probably was due to the overall situation, another was due to him not having had anyone scheduled to come over in quite some time. This wasn’t to say people hadn’t been over, Kimberly being a perfect example; just that he hadn’t had any advanced plans of guest in recent months. Not since Nicole, actually.
Memories of those days began to unfold.
He remembered always being excited for her visits (what guy wouldn’t be?), but also constantly being overwhelmed by anxiety because of his financial situation, one that cast a shadow over everything and, eventually, killed the fun that he and Nicole had been having together.
Things would be different now.
If the two ever decided to get together again, or if he ever started working on a project like the blog with another girl, things wouldn’t have such a serious ‘we have to make this look good so it sells’ feel to it.
Forget about building another site, just having a girl in your life who likes you would be different.
A sense of loss arrived.
Nicole had liked him.
Sure, they had started out just as business partners, but there had been a growing connection there as well, which was something that he hadn’t really felt with anyone for a long time. Nor did he want to feel it then, which is why things had fallen apart with the two of them. Now he regretted that, though he wasn’t sure why. Something within him had changed, something that now made him realize how alone he truly was.
Kimberly.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know what it was that had stirred up these feelings, nor the reason why the feelings had appeared. If she had just moved in and been a neighbor, he might have continued being satisfied with his life, but instead she needed his help, his protection.
It seems so cliché, he said to himself, but then realized that maybe there was a good reason for that. It happens!
A sense of dismay followed, mostly because he didn’t like the idea that he could fall into a situation that so many other people found themselves stumbling into. It made him too normal, too like everyone else, which was something he didn’t really care for; not when he had always felt as if his abilities to rationalize and think things through had been a step above everyone else’s.
He shook his head and started toward his computer to kill some time, but then stopped when he heard footsteps on the stairs outside.
They’re here.
He went to the door and opened it.
The girl he now knew as Amy was standing there by herself, a shy smile upon her face.
It’s her, he said to himself. No question about it.
“Hi,” she said. “Um . . . William?”
“Yep, well, Bill actually,” he said and held out a hand. Be cool and don’t giv
e in that you know it’s her. “Amy?”
She nodded.
“So, where’s Mark?”
“Oh, parking the car.” She smiled. “Nothing was open in front of the house.”
“Oops, I should have told him he could park in the driveway,” Bill said. “Oh well, come on in.”
He held the door for her as she stepped inside, his mind going over some options on what to say once Mark got there. As far as he was concerned, this girl was the one from the other night, the one who had bit him and the one who he had chased through the yards. Now he just needed to prove it.
Trip her up somehow.
Get her to spill something that kills any doubt.
“Um, can I get you something to drink?” he asked. “I have soda, juice, water. No Snapple though.”
“Soda is good,” she said. The word Snapple didn’t earn a reaction at all.
Going to have to be a bit more clever it seems.
He grabbed two Cokes and handed one to her, and then motioned toward the couch in the other room.
She hesitated a moment, almost as if she wanted him to go first. He wasn’t going to turn his back on her, however, and simply said, “I’ll wait here for Mark, make yourself comfortable.”
“Okay,” she said and headed into the other room.
Bill waited, Coke unopened, but Mark never showed up.
11
He’s going to know something is up soon when Mark doesn’t show, Amy said to herself while sitting on the couch, panic rising. You need to act soon.
In her purse she had a kitchen knife, duct tape, a can of bug spray, and a sock with a potato in it, the last of which was a homemade knockout item she had read about online, one that was reportedly able to thump a person senseless without risking skull fracture. If that didn’t work, she would spray him in the face with the bug stuff.
Gotta get close though, and if he is going to wait over there for Mark . . .
The thought ended as a possible solution literally landed in her lap, one that she would never have thought of while sitting at home.
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