Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set

by Bob Moats

  Trapper came back. “Amazing, no one saw anything. I talked to the floor manager, and he said a couple of people in the audience had asked to use the restroom. They don’t usually closely watch where these people may wander off to. So I guess someone could have slipped down the hall and left the note. They don’t keep track of names of people in the audience, but I’m sure he would have used a fake name anyway. There are no security cameras around which also amazes me. We are nowhere.”

  He turned to the giant cops and said, “I want you two to stick to Wickens like glue. If anything happens to her, I’ll cut you both off at the knees, bringing you down to my level so I can smack your faces.” He asked Penny what her agenda was for the day. She said that she was done at the studio and would just be going home.

  “Would it be a problem with having my officers hanging around your home?” Trapper asked.

  “No, no problem. Besides Jim is going to help protect me too,” she said smiling at me.

  Trapper grimaced and said, “Who’s going to protect you from him? I’m also going to put a couple officer outside of your home, so don’t worry.””

  “As I understand it, four women have been murdered while under police protection, and you don’t want me to worry.” She sounded like she was interrogating a guest on her show.

  Trapper’s face contorted. “Well, we will be on our toes this time. I promise.”

  She looked at me. “You have some calls to make, and then we’ll go home.” I liked the way she said we would go home.

  I went off into the bathroom and called my brother to ask if he could get Dad to bed. He said he would. Then I called Mom and told her that I had plans to do something with Buck and that my brother was filling in with Dad. She asked if I would be late. I said I probably would stay at Buck’s so not to worry about me. She was placated. I hated to tell her a tale, but she would have fretted all night if she knew I was camping out in a place where a serial killer might visit. I thought about that, and I called Buck.

  “Hey, Jimmy, still alive?” Buck said as he heard my voice.

  “Barely. Sue Carter was killed today, and a threat was made at Penny Wickens,” I replied.

  “Whoa, what happened to Sue?”

  I told him the gory details and then told him about my morning with Penny, leaving the intimate details just barely suggested. He congratulated me and asked when Penny and I were getting married.

  “I just reconnected with her after forty years of not knowing she was crazy about me. I’m not rushing anything yet.”

  There was a knock on the door. Penny called in to ask if I was OK. I said yes and that I was arranging for extra cavalry. She said she missed me and would wait. I smiled.

  I asked Buck if he had any plans for tonight. He wasn’t working. He said he would help with anything I needed. I told him to hold on and went to the door. I opened it and called Penny in. I sat on the closed toilet, and she plopped down on my lap.

  “Buck, get a paper and pen,” and then asked Penny for her address and directions. I gave them to Buck. “Bring your little silver persuader along and pick up a couple of good DVDs. We can meet around 7 P.M.” He agreed and I hung up.

  Penny kissed me on the nose and thanked me for doing what I was doing. “I certainly hope we can get some privacy tonight. If not I’m sending everyone out of the house.”

  “Including me?” I asked.

  “No, silly, not you. I’ll need you.”

  We gathered her stuff and took our little posse out to her car. One cop went to get their patrol car, and he picked up the other cop with us. I was surprised they could fit in the car. They followed us to Penny’s home on Lake St. Clair, and she pulled into the garage. I told her to wait in the car and lock the doors after I got out. Both of the cops and I went into her house and made a sweep of the place to make sure it was safe, then we went out and brought her in. Her black cat scared the hell out of me by jumping up on the counter in front of me. I jumped back and into one of the giant cops. He laughed out loud and picked up the cat.

  “Hey, I wasn’t scared, just surprised,” I defended myself.

  Penny put her things away and gave us a tour of the house so we knew where everything was. “You officers can camp out in the family room. It’s in the center of the house and easily accessible to the rest of the house.”

  They thanked her and sat at the snack bar between the kitchen and the family room. She turned on the TV and gave them the remote, then grabbed my hand and led me to the back porch. It was enclosed with a fantastic view of the lake. I loved the water but hated contact with it. I was not into water activities.

  We sat on a porch glider and swung slowly back and forth. The cat joined us and plopped down on my lap. I told her about my first sexual encounter.

  “It was on an old metal porch glider like this one. It was in the girl’s parent’s basement, and it squeaked and groaned with our gyrating. I was surprised her parents didn’t come down to find out what all the racket was.”

  She laughed and wondered what sex on a porch glider would be like. We’d have to try it sometime when there were fewer people around.

  I thought about Buck and excused myself to go warn the officers about him. I noticed another patrol car pulling in the drive, and one of the giant cops and I went out to greet them. The newcomers stationed themselves outside blocking the only drive onto the property, a long way from the main road. I warned them about Buck, and they said they would watch out for him.

  I left the four of them to plot world domination and went back to the house. Penny was standing at the door and hugged me as I came in. God, she felt so good, I didn’t want her to let go. We went to the kitchen, and she asked what I’d like to eat.

  “Wow, you can cook?” I kidded.

  “I’m hot in the kitchen, too, besides the bedroom.” That coy smile came back. I said to surprise me, and she went to work pulling foodstuff out of the fridge and cupboards. I sat at the snack bar and watched her. Even flitting around the stove, she looked luminous. I do believe I was falling in love.

  Every now and then, she would stop to give me a kiss then back off to cook. She made a quick stew with ingredients she had on hand, and after a while, it was ready.

  “Would you get plates out for everybody and the utensils are in that drawer,” she said pointing. I opened the drawer and pulled out the tray with the knives and forks.

  I called the officers, and they took turns filling their plates with the stew. I hoped there would be some left for Penny and me. There was, so Penny and I sat at her dining table and ate while talking. I wanted to hear her life story after high school, and she gave me all the details. I filled in a few more of the holes in my life that I hadn’t covered earlier, and then we just sat there staring into each other’s eyes for a very long time.

  The two giants came back in and one of them said, “Buck is arriving.” I was surprised that it was already 7:00 and went out to greet him, taking Penny with me.

  Buck had seen Penny’s show so he was a fan already and was delighted to meet her. Penny was shorter than I was so Buck towered over her and lifted her off the ground when he gave her a friendly hug. She laughed and said she enjoyed the ride. Buck got a big chuckle out of that.

  He pulled out a 30 pack of my favorite beer from the trunk and handed it to me. I called him a saint, and he said more of a devil. We went into the house.

  One of the giants recognized Buck and told him he was an admirer of Buck’s classic cars that he had seen at local car shows. Buck went to various car shows to display his restored 1961 T-Bird and had won numerous awards. Buck was surprised to have to look up at the giants, but they started to get along great.

  We finally found out the giants’ names, Tim and Deacon. Deacon’s real name was Francis, “But don’t call me by that name.” he said. “I was named after Francis Albert Sinatra, a favorite of my Italian mother.”

  We all talked for a while, then Penny and I gathered the dishes and went into the kitchen to wash
them.

  It was almost 8 P.M., and I asked Penny, “Would you be upset if I had a beer?”

  She said, “I would be if you don’t offer me one.” OK, now I was really in love. I knew Buck didn’t drink anymore and the cops couldn’t so we had the 30 all to ourselves. We finished the dishes and stood in the living room making sure everybody was comfortable.

  Penny and I excused ourselves, grabbed a couple more beers and went back out to the porch where we talked until the sun went down. Buck and the cops were talking cars, and Buck was relating some of his wild day’s adventures with the police. The giants were amused by his stories.

  I decided to go back in the house as we could be targets on the porch from someone out in the dark. She locked the porch door and we went into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Penny snuggled under my arm, and we just sat there in the quiet.

  *

  Chapter Eight

  Buck came over, slid down on an armchair and gave us his walrus smile.

  “I got a couple of DVDs like you requested Jimmy. A new James Bond movie and that cute robot movie.”

  “Buck is a softy for animated robot movies,” I said to Penny.

  “Well, Wall-E is my favorite, too, I can watch it again.” She excused herself to go make some popcorn.

  Buck and I talked about the day’s events and plotted for the night’s possibilities. Buck said he would camp out on the couch. The giants from behind us said they would take turns napping on a recliner.

  “Where you gonna sleep, Jimmy?” Buck grinned.

  “For sure not on the couch with you.” I laughed.

  Penny came back in with a big bowl of popcorn and five plastic bags of popcorn. She handed me another beer and set one down for herself on an end table. Yep, definitely love.

  She asked Deacon, “Would you take two of the popcorn bags out to the officers in the car?” He did gladly, then she gave one to Buck and Tim. I thought what a great woman this person was. She thought of others and not just herself.

  Penny took the Wall-E disc, put it in her DVD player and turned on the huge LCD TV mounted on the wall. We all settled in for movie night at Penny’s.

  Every now and then Penny would toss a piece of popcorn at my head and pretend she didn’t, so I started to toss a few back. After a while, it turned into a popcorn battle with more on our bodies than in our mouths.

  “Okay, truce,” I said.

  “Wimp,” she replied.

  Taking offense, I said, “Okay be that way, I’ll be leaving now.”

  She leaned over and quietly said, “You had better not, I have plans for you later.” I said I was staying.

  A short time later Penny and I started talking like Wall-E and Eve. Buck asked us to grow up or he’d send us to bed, without the popcorn. We started mimicking more, saying “send us to bed” in robot talk. Buck just shook his head and watched the movie while he could.

  It was almost 11:00 when the movie finished, and Penny said she needed to get her sleep for work tomorrow. She looked at me and said, “There’s a soft chair in my room that you can sleep on while guarding my precious body.”

  “Hmm…yeah, that would work. Excuse us, gentlemen. Don’t get up, we’ll see our way out.” Buck gave me a wink as we headed down the hall, Penny giggling under her breath.

  “Think they fell for it?” she whispered happily.

  “Oh, I’m sure they don’t suspect a thing.” I chuckled. I couldn’t believe this fifty eight year old woman was acting like a giggly teenager. I was really hooked on her now.

  Once in her bedroom she went after me like a sex maniac. I was stripped down, and we were rolling on the bed in record time. Then we took things slow. Real slow. Oh, boy, twice in one day. This woman would kill me if she could. After a session of fantastic lovemaking, we cuddled and rested. She was asleep quite fast and, thankfully, she didn’t snore. I lay there holding her for a long while. I was not a good sleeper. Some nights it would take me hours before I would drift off then wake a couple of hours later.

  I was just drifting off around 2 A.M. when I heard a noise. Being a light sleeper also helped. I sat up listening. It seemed like it was outside the bedroom window. I quietly woke Penny who sprang wide awake.

  I said quietly, “Get out of bed and throw on a robe. Go in your bathroom off your bedroom. It has no windows to the outside. Go in and lock the door.”

  She did. I was pulling on my pants, shirt and shoes when I heard a noise outside again. I softly went to the bedroom door and listened. I could hear the TV playing quietly and went down the hall but not out into the living room.

  From the hall I could see that Buck was nowhere in the room. Deacon was sitting at the snack bar watching TV, and Tim was crashed on the recliner. I came further down the hall just as I heard glass breaking. A figure stormed in from the kitchen, firing a stun gun, hitting Deacon and incapacitating him. Tim jumped up groggily, and before he had time to react, the figure fired a second stun gun hitting Tim in the chest and knocking him out.

  I turned quickly back down the hall and hid behind the almost closed door in Penny’s bedroom. I could hear soft footsteps coming down the hall and up to the door. I was trying not to breathe or pee my pants and wondering where Buck was. There was a long pause at the door, and then it slowly opened. I waited until it was half-open, then I threw my body full force into the door, bashing whoever was on the other side. I heard a howl, then the door came back at me forcing me against the wall.

  I was trapped. He was strong. His head came around the end of the door. He wore a ski mask.

  “Well, Richards, you didn’t heed my last warning to you? Now you can die with the TV bitch.” He shoved the door again, crushing me and taking my breath away.

  “Yes, I’m going to enjoy this. Maybe I’ll have my way with Wickens. She is a looker, eh? I’ll let you watch.”

  He brought his hand around the door edge. He had another stun gun. He laughed, and suddenly there was a sound from the hall.

  I looked over to the crack in the door and could see Buck. He lunged forward at the killer. They both fell into the room and wrestled around on the floor. There was a small pop, and Buck fell back with the stun gun cord in his side.

  He roared at the killer and wouldn’t go down. He reared back up, but the killer swung at him. Buck ducked, fell back and that gave the killer the opening to jump up and head out the door. I caught my breath and went to Buck who was trying to find his legs, but they seemed to go in different directions. His gun was tucked into his belt. I grabbed it and fired once into the ceiling to see if the outside cops were still awake.

  I went to the door and carefully looked down the hall with the gun held out. I heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Summoning up my nerve, I ran out and was ready to fire the gun when the outside cops came bursting through the front door. I held my hands up, “Don’t shoot, it’s me. The killer went out the back through the kitchen.”

  They ran in that direction. I returned to the bedroom. Buck was sitting on the floor in a daze.

  He babbled nonsense, then lay over on his side and lost consciousness. He was still mumbling, but I knew he was going to be all right. I wasn’t going to have Penny come out of the bathroom until I was sure the killer was dead, caught or gone.

  I yelled to her through the door, “Stay in there and just wait till I say it’s safe.”

  I could hear her say she would. I went back to the kitchen and saw that the large window was broken. The killer must have jumped through it into the room when he did his commando raid. I heard a shot from out back by the water, then two more shots.

  I tried to see what was happening in the dark of the backyard. Suddenly I felt dizzy and short of breath. I moved back to the snack bar and had to sit and try to catch my breath. I heard a female voice from the hall calling my name. Penny came down the hall and saw me looking pale and heaving my breath. She ran to me. I had trouble talking. I was in pain.

  The patrol officers came back in and rushed over
to me. They did a check on me and determined I had broken ribs that were causing pressure on my lung. They had called for EMTs already and laid me down on the couch.

  Penny was fretting over me as the patrol officers checked the giants, now looking rather small on the floor. I felt sorry for them when Trapper would get here.

  About 4 A.M. the medics had me bandaged up like a mummy, and Buck and the giants were all sitting together on the couch looking a bit frazzled. Trapper was talking to the outside cops, and then he came over to me where I was sitting in an armchair, Penny sitting on the arm.

  “OK, Richards, let’s hear your part in this attempt.” He was a bit friendly, probably since Penny wasn’t murdered. Chalk one up for the good guys.

  I told him everything from when I heard a noise outside Penny’s room, in the backyard.