He walked backward toward the living room, dragging me down the hallway with him. He was moving fast, and I felt the knife against the front of my body. My blouse had been cut away and was now hanging from my arms. I flailed with the only arm that was free, but I couldn’t connect with any part of his body. He threw me across the coffee table and partially onto the sofa. My hip hit the corner of the table hard, and I cried out with pain.
Before I could make another sound, he was on top me, pulling me onto the sofa. His weight was crushing. His hand was over my mouth again and his knife was moving expertly as it cut into the thin cotton of my slacks.
I tried to scream and felt yet another sharp pain in my neck.
“Shut up!” he growled. “You think you’re so superior. We weren’t good enough for you and your stupid apartments. We weren’t good enough to live in your precious building. My wife left me, you know. She left me!” he screamed. “She said I was stupid and poor. She would have been happy here, but you turned us down. I’ve been waiting and watching. You and all the other pretty girls. They all deserved what they got. Stupid, stupid pretty girls. I took them until I could get you. I almost had you twice, but I have you now.”
His knife moved again, and I felt more of my cotton slacks being cut away. My free arm was wildly grasping for anything by the coffee table. Everything had been pushed onto the floor when he threw me across it to the sofa. My hand connected with a magazine, but I knew it would be of no use. Then it found the giraffe. That very stupid, very ugly, very heavy giraffe Ron had given to me.
I swung it with all my might up against Lugnut’s head.
The cracking of his skull made a sickening sound. He rolled off of me and onto the floor. He was rolling around in pain and holding his head. I struggled off of the sofa, my clothes hanging in shreds, and attempted to pass him to run to the front door. He reached out a hand and grabbed my ankle.
I screamed and instinctively jerked my foot. I was able to wrest my leg away from him, but he was getting to his feet. I ran in the opposite direction to my little library and locked the door. I could hear him swearing and coming down the hallway after me.
I was only vaguely aware I had started crying and was actually sobbing. I threw the window open and started yelling, “Help!” at the top of my lungs. Images of the tomb flashed through my mind.
Lugnut was breaking the door down. I opened the bookcase and slipped into the secret closet. I pulled the bookcase shut behind me and moved quickly in the darkness toward the back of the closet. I was unaware Mick had stacked two more wooden wine crates in the closet while I was gone, and I tripped and fell over them cracking my head on the corner of yet another wooden crate. I rolled over onto my back with a searing pain running through my head. I heard the library door give way. Lugnut come roaring into the room as I blacked out.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“You’ve had twenty-six concussions in your life, Susan Hunter, and if you have any more, we’re simply going to have to cut your head off.”
“It’s Raines. Susan Raines,” I said tiredly. My head hurt so badly, but the doctor was wrong. “It’s only been twenty-four concussions. Only twenty-four.”
The doctor gaped at me with disgust and said, “You know full well you’re only allowed to have three concussions in your lifetime, and you’ve not only used up your allotment, but you’ve taken concussions from other people, as well.”
The nurse beside the doctor was smiling and holding a handsaw in one hand. She wanted to saw my head off. It would please her very much. Her other hand held something square. She turned it to show me. It was a picture of the tomb in New Orleans. I looked more closely, and saw I was in a coffin inside the tomb. My head and a knife were on a small table beside the coffin, and a sufficient amount of blood was spattered everywhere.
I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. The reading from the fortune teller had come true.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“For cyring out loud! Get a police officer up here and kill this dog!”
The voice was loud. It was close by and above me. Then I heard the growling. A vicious dog was nearby. Was it going to attack me?
“You can’t shoot the dog,” said another voice in desperation.
“Hell if I can’t!” yelled the first voice.
I heard the dog whimper, and then there was vicious snarling and growling again.
I realized the bad voice belonged to Detective Bentley. The desperate voice was Mick. The dog had to be Joe, and Detective Bentley wanted to shoot him!
“Get a gun up here!” he yelled again. “For all we know, she could be dead already, and we can’t help her until someone kills this damned dog!”
Open your eyes, Susan. Open your eyes. I was trying to will myself to open my eyes. I couldn’t let them kill Joe. I could feel tears slipping out, but I couldn’t open my eyes. I felt heat on my face, and then moisture. It was Joe. He was licking my face and my eyes. He was whimpering and licking my tears.
I manage to flutter my eyes a bit. A tiny bit of voice came out, “Good dog, Joe.”
Mick called softly to Joe through a cracked voice, “Come here, Joe. She’s ok. Come here boy.”
I felt myself being lifted out of the closet. Everything went black again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“The doctor will be in to see you soon, dear.”
A pleasant woman had been moving around the room for a few minutes. I had been watching her through barely opened eyes. I didn’t realize at first that she was a nurse.
“Susan?”
I turned to my left. A sharp pain shot through my head on that side. I winced.
“Sweetheart,” Mick said taking my hand and lifting it to his lips, “don’t move. Lie still until the doctor comes in.”
“Did they get him?” I asked.
“Yes. They got him. We’ll talk about it later,” he said. “Just try to lie still.”
“Joe?”
“He’s fine. He’s at the -”
“Well, folks,” said a vaguely familiar voice, “it looks like we’re only going to need a few stitches and some aspirin.” The doctor looked at me and said, “It was a little over a year ago I stitched this exact same spot, Susan, but this is a smaller wound. The concussion is mild, the small cuts on your neck will be fine with bandages, and we have just a few more test results to get back. I’ll send a nurse in to get you prepped, and we’ll get you taken care of and out of here.”
He nodded to both of us, and Mick said, “Thank you.”
A few minutes later, Darby came into the room with a brown paper bag in his hand. He gave Mick a quick man-hug and then leaned down to hug me in the bed. He held on and didn’t seem to want to let go. I knew how he felt. I felt a tear slip out of the corner of each eye and saw he had lost a tear of his own. He kissed me on the nose and stood up.
“You brought food?” I asked.
Both men laughed, and Darby said, “No. Are you hungry?”
“Starving,” I said.
“You came here with essentially no clothing, so I brought some things you can wear home,” he said.
“Thank you,” I told him with a smile. “Where’s Nate?”
“He’s trying to get Joe -”
“Darby,” Mick interrupted, “why don’t you order Chinese for all of us? We can eat back at the apartment and fill in the details for Susan after we get home.”
“Ok, sounds good,” he said.
“Wait,” I said, “My stomach flops just thinking about Chinese. Do you have stuff for Reubens? And Kosher pickles? And java chip ice cream?”
“I sure do,” he said as he kissed my nose again. He opened the door to leave the room, and the nurse came in.
After cleaning the wound, and sectioning my hair so very little would have to be shaved for the stitches, the doctor came back in.
“We have the last of your test results now, Susan, and we need to talk about your blood test.”
Mick and I looked at each other anxiously. What
else could be wrong?
“Congratulations,” he said with a big smile. “You’re pregnant.”
Chapter Fourteen
“This is one of the best Rueben sandwiches I’ve ever eaten,” said Detective Bentley with his mouth mostly full.
I smiled. It didn’t scare me to have him at our dining room table. I was happy he had come.
“These are really good,” said Nate, “but I think when Susan makes them, there’s just something a little extra to make them even better.”
Darby smiled. He didn’t care Nate was slightly dissing his sandwiches; he knew they weren’t as good as mine, but they were close.
It was nearly midnight, and we were in our apartment. Everyone was still too worked up over the events of the day, and Mick had called Detective Bentley and invited him to join us for the late dinner. He thought the detective could help to fill in the gaps as to what had happened with Lugnut.
“What’s up with you?” Darby asked me with a curious look on his face. “You said you were starved, but you’re barely eating, and you’re just sitting there.” He turned to Mick and asked, “Is she ok?”
Mick smiled and said, “She’s fine. Really. The doctor said the concussion was mild and she only needs an aspirin.” He looked at me with that wonderfully amused smile of his, and I wanted to squeal out loud with happiness, but we had agreed we would wait until after we had discussed everything before telling the guys about the baby.
After the doctor left the room, Mick helped me change into the clothes Darby had brought. He gathered me close to him and held me tight as he whispered into my ear, “I love you, Susan. You’re going to be a wonderful mommy.”
A few happy tears slipped out of the corners of my eyes as I said, “I already know you’re a great dad.”
He kissed me hard, and my knees went wobbly beneath me. The events of the day melted away as I melted into his arms. I loved him with all my being.
A huge grin spread across my face once again, and I saw Darby look at me with another puzzled expression. I quickly brought down the smile and took a huge bite of my sandwich. “See,” I muttered through the mouthful, “I’m eating.”
He laughed and shook his head. He knew something was up, but he didn’t know what it was.
“Well,” Detective Bentley said starting the conversation, “we all know what happened to Susan.” He looked at me and asked, “Susan, did you know Lugnut was behind both the robberies and the attacks at the mall?”
“I kind of figured it out when I realized he was wearing a blonde wig,” I said. “We’re the same height and build, and with the blonde wig, and the car like mine, it was easy for people to mistake him for me.”
“Yep, that’s right,” he said. His hatred of you ran deep, and after you and Mick didn’t let him rent one of the units in the building, and then his wife left him, he blamed you and started restoring a Chevelle to look like yours. He was setting you up for the robberies, and he was taking his aggression out on other women hoping to eventually attack you.”
My appetite was instantly gone. I felt the color drain from my face, and I felt cold. All of those poor women, and it was all because of me. I pushed my plate away and sat back in my chair.
“Susan,” Detective Bentley addressed me sharply, “None of this was your fault. You didn’t cause any of this. This was a sick man.”
Mick stood from his chair and came over to stand beside me. He placed his hand on my shoulder. I reached up to hold his hand in mine.
“But why did he hate me?” I asked. “Why wasn’t he mad at Mick? Mick made the final decisions on the prospective tenants, and we put all of the names in a hat. It was the luck of the draw, and Lugnut wasn’t chosen. It wasn’t personal.”
“It goes back to over a year ago,” the detective said. “Lugnut said he always liked you. I think he said he had a crush on you in high school, but you never talked to him.”
“Why would I?” I asked somewhat incredulously. “I don’t remember seeing him around school. He was in a mechanics program or something, and he was always in the school’s shop or garage. It wasn’t like we ran in the same circles.”
“He’s carried some kind of torch for you all these years,” the detective said with a shrug of his shoulders. “When he gave his statement, he said you brought the Chevelle into the garage for servicing about a year ago, and he finally worked up the nerve to talk to you. He tried to let you know he was interested and that he liked you, but you turned your back to him and wouldn’t listen. He said he felt humiliated. After his wife left him, he went off the deep end and blamed you.”
“Oh my gosh,” I said slowly, “I remember that day. It was right after Mick and I first met. I dropped the car off and was waiting for Lugnut so I could tell him what I wanted done. When he came over, I was texting Sam about going out on my first date with Mick. I was excited, and we were going back and forth pretty fast with messages. Lugnut said something to me, but I told him to wait a minute, and I turned my back to him while I finished texting with Sam. When I turned back around, he seemed upset. I asked him what he wanted, but he brushed it aside. He didn’t say anything other than to grunt and say the car would be ready in two days. It was typical Lugnut.”
“And then you wouldn’t have an affair with him,” Detective Bentley said.
I felt Mick’s hand tighten on my shoulder. “He wanted Susan to have an affair with him?” He looked at me and asked, “Did you know this?”
“Yes,” I said a little sheepishly, “but I didn’t think anything of it. He asked a couple of times when I saw him at the racquetball club, but I always told him no. Last week, I told him to knock it off or I was going to tell his wife. He apologized to me when he walked me to my car at the mall.”
“What?” Mick yelled. “Lugnut walked you to your car?”
My shoulders slumped as I said, “Yes, twice.”
Mick grabbed his chair and pulled it over beside me. He sat down hard and put his head in his hands. He pulled his hands down over his face as he raised his head and said, “Susan, you were so close to being attacked by that, by that …” he fumbled for appropriate dirtbag words.
“I know,” I told him. “Barry showed up both times and saw us. I’m sure that’s what stopped him.”
It was quiet around the table. Darby was pale, and he had a frown on his face. This was hard news to hear for all of them.
Detective Bentley broke the silence by asking, “Do we want to do this another day? Susan has to come down to the station this week to give her statement, and I can fill her in on what happened then.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I want to know now.” I turned to Darby and said, “Why don’t you and Nate dish up the ice cream? We’ll finish over ice cream.”
While the guys went to the kitchen, I took a few minutes to run to the bathroom. Now that I knew I was pregnant, it explained the extra time lately in the bathroom and the unsettled stomach I’d been dealing with. It probably explained some of the crazy laughter and wild emotions in New Orleans as well.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, Mick was sitting on the bed waiting for me. I smiled at him. He didn’t say a word. The look on his face was a mixture of distress and intense love. His eyes were misty. He stood up, pulled me into his arms, and held me tight for a few minutes.
I pulled back slightly, looked into his beautiful hazel-green eyes, and simply said, “I love you, Mick.”
He pulled me close to him again and whispered in my ear, “Susan, I love you, too.”
I knew there was more he wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come. I wanted to lie down on the bed with him, but as I was considering the thought, Darby called down the hallway, “Hey, you two, ice cream’s on the table.”
Mick buckled my knees with a kiss which left me lightheaded before we left the bedroom and headed back to the dining room.
“Nate,” Detective Bentley said, “You’re up. After Susan cracked her head in the closet, you and Joe were just coming home, right?�
��
“Yep,” Nate said. “We had just come back from the deli.” He looked at me and said, “The windows are all fixed there now, and Martin said to tell you that you can come back to the store. He’s not mad at you anymore.”
I nodded my head and smiled a little smile. I had been dreading going back to the deli, and had even been thinking of finding somewhere else to go. It was good to know Martin wasn’t holding a grudge.
“Well,” Nate said with a bit of dramatic flair,” I always let Joe off his leash when we come into the building, so he can run up the stairs. He always hits the third floor before I do, and I could hear him tearing into something up here, so I ran up the steps as fast as I could.” He looked at me and said with admiration, “Susan, I’ve seen you take those steps two at a time a million times, and I don’t know how you do it.”
I smiled, but everyone else looked at Nate as if to say get on with it!
Nate continued, “He had Lugnut cornered on the landing at the bottom of the steps up here. Lugnut was yelling and screaming because Joe had sunk his teeth into his leg. I didn’t intervene right away, because I didn’t know what was happening. Joe has never attacked anyone, and I was afraid to go near him. Then I saw Lugnut had blood on him that obviously wasn’t from Joe. It was on his hands and arms, and some on his face. I knew then something was terribly wrong. After that, if Lugnut tried to move, Joe attacked him again. He has some nasty wounds now to both his legs and arms. I was petrified watching the dog assault him.”
“What did you do?” I asked flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe what Nate had just said. Joe attacking Lugnut was almost unbelievable, but I was secretly glad he had.
“I didn’t,” Nate said. “Mick and Detective Bentley came running up the stairs. The good detective didn’t bat an eye; he simply jumped in and threw Lugnut to the ground and cuffed him.”
My eyes were wide. I looked at the detective, and he had a slight smile on his face. I addressed him, “What did you do to Joe?”
4 Big Easy Hunter Page 14
