I kicked my heel into the carpet and twisted it as I waited for someone, anyone, to answer my knocking. I waited a few more seconds before turning to the last door on the floor. Come on, number sixteen; make my day.
42
Vicki was on her hands and knees, craning her neck for a better look under the couch, when she heard the knock at the door. She jumped up at the sound. Her first inclination was that she had mistaken some other noise for a knock, but then she heard it again. Someone was definitely on the other side of that door. Just be quiet. They’ll leave eventually. But the knocking continued. Persistent fuckers, aren’t we?
Vicki looked at the body sprawled out in front of her. Inviting them in for coffee was out of the question. Did he have a girlfriend? Did she have a key? If he’d had one and she did have the key, she wouldn’t be knocking, dummy.
Again, three succinct knocks rang out.
Vicki quietly walked up to the door and leaned in toward the peephole. A quick look couldn’t hurt. Standing outside she saw a short, Asian woman dressed in a dark blue pantsuit. Who the hell is that? A Realtor?
“Open up,” the woman said. “I know you’re home. I can see your shadow moving under the door.”
Vicki looked down. Damn! She quickly counted her options.
Ignore her.
Answer the door and politely tell her I’m busy.
Kill her.
“My name is Abby Kane,” the woman said with a raised voice. “I’m with the FBI, and I want to ask you a few questions. It’ll only take a few moments of your time.”
Shit! Vicki had to reconsider her options. Quick!
She moved into the bedroom, yanked the brown comforter off the bed and covered the body. She then stripped off her pants, shirts and shoes and wrapped one towel around her head and another around her body. A splash of water to the face and she returned to the door.
Surely that agent wouldn’t come into the home of a half-naked woman. Vicki put on a smile and cracked the door open enough to peek out.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” I said. The woman staring at me from behind the door looked as if she had just stepped out of the shower.
“Bad timing.” The woman forced a laugh. She was being polite.
“I’ll get to the point.” I held up my phone and showed the woman the picture of my suspect. Her head jerked back instantly, and her forehead crinkled.
“Do you recognize this woman?” I asked as I moved the phone closer to her face. “Looks like you might have.”
She pulled her head back farther. “No, not at all. I can barely make out her features.” Her eyes fluttered back and forth between the picture and myself. “It’s a terrible photo.”
Why thank you, Master of the Obvious. “She’s a suspect in a case.”
She shrugged. “Is that it? I’m sort of in the middle of a bath, and I’m running late for an appointment.”
“No.” I pulled up the video. “See if this helps.”
She barely watched before she started shaking her head.
“You live in the building long?” I asked.
“Not long. Maybe six months.”
“It empties out during the day. This is the second apartment I have encountered where someone was home.”
“Oh, well, I work from home. I’m a writer,” she replied. Her nose turned up a tad. I guess she wanted to show me that her nostrils were clean.
“That’s nice,” I said, biting my bottom lip but never taking my eye off her.
“Well, Ms…”
“White. Evelyn White.”
“…Ms. White, thank you for your time.” I produced one of my business cards and handed it to her. “In case you remember anything.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
As I turned to walk away, what she said stopped me dead in my tracks.
“Good luck finding them.”
43
Jerry ordered the cab driver to pull into the alley next to the building. “Here’s fifty bucks. Wait here for me,” he said while handing the cabbie the money. “I have another hundred for you when I get back, okay?”
The cabbie nodded. “I’ll be right here, boss.”
Jerry eyed the brown-skinned man for a second before nodding and exiting the vehicle. He hurried to the front of the building, hoping the security gate had been left open. No such luck.
Fucking A. Dammit, why did she have to disobey me? He distinctly remembered telling her to forget about that charm and that returning to that apartment was a risk. Yes, it had all come back to him. The conversation had taken place over dinner and drinks. At least, that’s how he remembered it. Or did he? Jerry ignored the voice that said otherwise, the one that swore the conversation had never happened. Jerry hated that voice. So cocky. So condescending. “You always have to be right,” Jerry whispered under his breath. “Not this time.”
His left hand remained in his front pants pocket, fondling the ivory-handled razor that Vicki had gifted him a few Christmases ago. She’d said he needed to add some pizzazz to his kills, and a man’s shaving blade was the perfect way to do it.
Jerry looked around. There was no one on the block, so he resorted to his last option and starting calling apartments, hoping someone would buzz him in. A few seconds later, someone did. Jerry pulled open the metal gate and entered the building.
I spun around and shoved my foot into the crack of the door right as she tried to close it.
“Excuse me!” she exclaimed. “Your foot is—”
“You said ‘them’.” I wedged my foot farther in and placed my left forearm against the door.
“What are you talking about?”
“You referred to ‘them’ as though I were asking about two people, but I had only shown you pictures of one person. Why?”
Her eyebrows narrowed and her head shook vehemently. “I don’t know, probably because you said so.”
She’s lying, Abby. “I didn’t say anything about two people.” I leaned into the door, feeling even more resistance. “Ms. White, you mind letting me in?”
“I will not.” She then kicked and stomped on my foot, trying to force it out. “You have no right to—”
That’s when I interrupted her by throwing my shoulder forward. Smack! The door struck her forehead, and the woman released her grip, allowing me to slip inside.
Right there before me, lying on the living room floor, was a body. Well, I saw a foot sticking out from under a blanket. I assumed the rest of the lump was a body. I turned to face White and realized she had recovered from the doorbutt faster than expected. She caught me on the chin with a right. It sent my face off to the side and my blood pressure skyrocketing.
She had set up for another strike, but I was faster and ducked. I countered with an uppercut to her jaw and snapped her head back. I then followed that with a combination punch and backed her up. She was noticeably dazed from my efforts, but I wasn’t taking any chances. My chin still stung from her cheap shot. I gripped the towel wrapped around her and yanked her forward, stepping to the side and sending her to the floor. She surprised me by rolling into a tumble and back to a standing position, minus both towels. And a wig.
“It’s you!” I gasped as she suddenly became very recognizable.
“You think you got me,” she seethed, clad only in her underwear. “I’m going to kick your short ass back to China.”
“Great. After that, you can buy lingerie that fits the body you have, not the body you want.”
That set her off. She let out a scream and moved toward me. My first instinct was to step to the side, but I was still pissed that she had punched my face. I stood my ground and allowed her to barrel toward me for a tackle. She was taller than me but, for some reason, had lowered her attack and aimed for my midsection with her arms stretched out and her face down. Perfect. I timed a knee strike and could hear the crunch of her nose against my kneecap before she crumpled to the ground.
I jumped onto her back, driving my knee into it and
pinning her to the ground. While I proceeded to handcuff her, she kept screaming that I had broken her noise. No shit! Her face was a red Niagara Falls. After cuffing her, I leaned down and said, “The next time you want to act like a tough bitch and pick a fight, realize you might be doing so with an even tougher bitch.”
44
Jerry exited the elevator and turned to the right, ready to make his way down the hall. He could already hear the commotion coming from the apartment and see that the door was open. Fuck me!
As he took a step forward, heavy bounding footsteps made their way up the stairwell. Within seconds, a young man in a suit came into view. Jerry, the quick thinker, immediately played the worried resident and pointed at the commotion at the end of the hall.
“Stay here,” said the young man as he removed his weapon and faced the hallway.
Jerry deduced that suits meant government, and that was a bad thing, considering there was a dead body at the end of that hallway. Before the young man could manage two steps forward, Jerry pounced on him from behind, taking him by complete surprise. He wrapped one arm across the suit’s chest to hold him still as he cut deep across the throat with the shaver, not once but with a rapid, sawing effect, until he had nearly severed the head. He let go, and the man fell to the floor, his limbs still twitching. Saliva spewed from Jerry’s clenched teeth with each breath. Kill mode had taken over. There would be no stopping him now—short of killing him.
He moved quickly and quietly toward the apartment. What he found wasn’t unexpected but very opportunistic. There, with her back to him, was a tiny woman in a suit. Perfect. Looking to perform the same move twice, Jerry quietly advanced.
Hearing the noise in the apartment directly above hers, Virginia Ayton immediately knew something was wrong. She hurried over to her phone, preparing to dial 911, when she saw a uniformed officer outside on the sidewalk talking to another man. She hung up the phone and opened her window. “Officer! Officer!”
Kang was talking to Officer Greg Loui when they both heard a woman’s voice shouting. They both looked around, searching for the source.
“Up here.”
Kang looked up to the building and saw an elderly woman waving at them from a window. He immediately headed toward the building entrance. “Is something wrong?” he shouted up to her.
“Yes, something terrible is happening in the apartment above me.”
Virginia buzzed both men into the building, and into the elevator they went as another resident exited. Kang accidently hit the fourth and fifth floor buttons simultaneously. Shit! Couple that with the inch-by-inch movement of the old elevator, and Kang uttered a few more choice words that echoed in the metal chamber. They were trapped at least until the next floor, which Kang pressed the button for immediately. Seconds felt like hours as Kang repeatedly slammed an open palm against the elevator cage, rattling it each time. He continued to curse himself for that button mistake but even more so for not taking the stairs.
<><><>
A squeak from the floor alerted me, and I turned in time to see a strange man with a blank look on his face moving toward me. Both of his arms were covered in blood. I rose to my feet fast enough to counter his swinging right with my left forearm. That’s when I noticed the razor in his hand. There are two of them?
I delivered a punch to his right eye, hoping a knuckle would catch his eyeball. No such luck. I tried to move out of his reach, but a lucky grasp from his flailing left arm clamped down on my jacket and held me within striking distance of his blade. I immediately lifted my right leg, ready to retaliate with a foot strike to his gut. But in that moment, I remembered my father’s advice. “Abby, there’s an artery in the foot. If you can hit that blood vessel at its most vulnerable point, where the top of foot meets the leg, you will cause extreme pain. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll sever it, rendering the foot useless.”
I didn’t know if what my father had said was true, but the heel of my shoe raced toward that area like a blade on a guillotine. I hoped to hell he had been right.
“Arrrggghhh!” The man cried out as his eyes clamped shut.
Bingo! I batted his hand off me and followed that with a knee to his groin, causing him to double over. I moved back as I reached inside my jacket for my weapon with my right hand. That’s when I felt the sharp pain on my left thigh. I looked down and saw blood beginning to soak through the cloth. My pant leg had been sliced, and his arm was swinging back toward me for another attempt. I hopped back just in time, causing him to miss, but he had momentum on his side, and he closed in on me quicker than I could have imagined. What happened to rendering the foot useless?
The situation was dangerous. He was taller and outweighed me. I knew I would lose if he took me to the ground. I needed distance and continued to back up. I needed to remain on my feet. But luck wasn’t on my side.
My left foot was kicked out from under me.
Even though she was handcuffed, my suspect had free use of her legs. My mind raced, looking for my next move as I fell to the floor. I still had my hand on the butt of my weapon, but it slipped off when I hit the ground.
A smile grew on the man’s face as he fell on top of me in a straddle position. His right knee prevented me from drawing my weapon, but I at least had a grip on my Glock. Little did I know, things would get worse. My other suspect rolled over and slammed a leg down across my neck, choking me in her attempt to help keep me immobile.
I looked into the eyes of the man on top of me. His pupils were obscenely dilated and saliva dripped from his clenched teeth like a rabid dog. There was no talking my way out of this.
My options were limited. I had to act fast or add my name to the list of victims. I twisted my right hand for a better grip on my weapon’s handle. My index finger was still outside the trigger guard. I thought if I could fire a round, it might confuse the man on top of me, maybe even hit him and give me a splinter of an advantage but I couldn’t be sure of the angle of the barrel. The last thing I needed was to shoot myself in the hip.
“Move your leg,” he growled at the woman.
“Just kill her already,” she yelled back as she complied.
“What the fuck happened to you?” he asked.
“What does it look like, you stupid fuck? She broke my nose.”
At that point, I watched the man lean toward the woman, stick the blade into her neck and pull down, opening her throat. She gasped, and her body shook. She twisted and turned in a panic as she drained before her own eyes.
Without missing a beat, he focused back on me as if he hadn’t done what he had just done. I could still hear the woman’s gurgling panic off to the side as it began to calm. She was dying. He then placed the blade against the side of my neck. It felt warm. Her blood?
In life, there are no do-overs. Over the years, I’ve learned that people have a better shot at success if they trust their instincts. It’s the wavering that causes the problems. Earlier, my instinct had presented an option to me. The question was, would I follow my own advice, or would I waver?
<><><>
The elevator slowed even more, if that were possible, as it neared the second floor. The cage bounced twice after stopping, and before Kang could react, the officer hit the fifth floor button again.
Kang knocked the officer’s hand away, and quickly gripped the handle of the heavy metal door and yanked back, stopping the elevator from moving again. “Are you kidding me?” he asked, looking the officer in the eye. “Did you not notice how slow we were moving?”
Unaware of his stupidity, the patrol officer shrugged. “Sorry. I thought—I mean, what are we racing toward anyhow?”
Kang felt like punching the guy, fellow officer or not. “I don’t have time to explain this shit to you if you can’t grasp the situation.” Kang shoved pass the officer, knocking him back with his shoulder as he slipped through the narrow opening of the elevator.
Kang used his long legs to his advantage and bounded up the steps two at a time until he reac
hed the top floor. He didn’t bother waiting for the officer, who was still hurrying one step at a time.
At the top of the stairs, Kang saw Tucker. He was a mess and looked gone. What the hell is going on? Officer Loui caught up to him just then. “Call backup and get an ambulance over here. Now!”
Kang stood up and removed his weapon. His long gait propelled him down the hall to the apartment with the open door. He could hear a commotion. He raised his weapon, ready for anything. With his gun out in front, he leaned cautiously into the opening.
Bam!
45
The bullet had ripped though Jerry’s upper, left thigh, causing him to rear back in pain and give me my slim advantage. I yanked my gun out of its holster, aimed up, and fired again. His bottom jaw exploded from the impact of the bullet. I fired again, catching him in the neck. He fell forward, his full weight resting on me. I started whacking him as hard as I could as I tried to wiggle out from underneath him. That’s when I saw Kang standing in the doorway.
“Don’t just stand there. Get this guy off me!”
Kang looked as if he had seen a ghost. I couldn’t understand his reaction. Clearly, I wasn’t dead. He stumbled forward, holstered his weapon and pulled the man off me. He held his hand out, and I grabbed it, allowing him to pull me to my feet.
“Are you okay?” he asked with that weird grimace still displayed on his face.
“I am now. What’s wrong with you? Why are you looking at me all funny?”
He grabbed me by my arms and turned me around so I faced the hanging mirror on the wall. Staring back at me was an Asian Carrie. I’m not talking about a few splatters on the face; it literally looked like someone had dunked my entire head into bucket filled with blood and sprinkled bits of flesh about my cheeks and forehead.
[Anthology] Abby & Sei Thriller Starter Page 15
