All the way up to the motel, Faye had recited the plan move by move, as if she were writing a screenplay for a feature film: how Susie should enter the room, how she should speak and behave once she was inside, even how she should flutter her eyelashes. She was still whispering behind Susie’s ear, sitting in the back in the shadows and whispering, chanting at her like some cheerleader of the damned, encouraging her, building her confidence to commit murder.
Of course, they didn’t view it as murder. It was killing only in the sense that a doctor kills a germ or a surgeon cuts out a cancer. “We kill bad things so that good things can live,” Faye told her. “Death is just another tool in the arsenal against the evil that lurks in and around our precious bodies. If we’re not healthy in mind and in body, and we don’t live in a protected environment, we can’t do good deeds, can’t we?”
Susie didn’t need to be convinced of their motives; she just needed to be bolstered and sustained. She had to know her strong, intelligent sister was with her, behind her, ready to come to her aid if need be.
“You’ll do fine,” Faye whispered. “You won’t have any problems with him. He idolizes you. Look at what he has done … come all this way just to see you. You’re all he thinks about, talks about. He lives and breathes you. He will not be suspicious. We do not suspect those we love and who we think love us,” she added, but with some bitterness. “This won’t be the first time someone who had such faith in another person was betrayed.
“But you mustn’t think of it that way,” she added quickly. “Think only of us and what we must do to go on together. You want us to be together, don’t you, Susie?”
“Yes.”
“Then there is no choice. You have what you need, and you know what to do. If you get nervous or afraid, just think about me and what I would do and how I would act, okay?”
“Yes, Faye.”
“It’s time, Susie. There’s no one around here right now. Get out and go to the door before someone pulls into the lot and sees you entering his unit. Go ahead, honey,” she said, and she kissed Susie on the cheek.
Susie took a deep breath, grasped her purse carefully, and stepped out of the car. She looked back once, but Faye wasn’t visible in the window. Without further hesitation, she hobbled over the gravel to Corpsy’s door and knocked.
Corpsy had just finished shaving. He wiped his face dry and dabbed on his favorite lotion, maybe putting on a little more than most men would because of his paranoia about that formaldehyde thing. He was in his briefs, no shirt, no socks, when he heard the rapping at his door.
It couldn’t be them, he thought quickly. It’s too early, even for drinks before dinner, isn’t it? But who else could it be?
He wrapped a towel around himself and went to the door.
“Who is it?” he asked. For a moment there was no response. Maybe it was a couple of kids pulling a prank, he thought. He was about to turn away when he heard, “It’s me. Susie.”
If he had stepped on an exposed electric wire, he couldn’t have had a more sudden shock pass through his body. He was numb. The charge that shot through him left the back of his neck ice cold. He started to stammer and then closed his mouth and seized control of his tongue.
“Susie?” he said, and he opened the door to see her standing there, not more than a foot away from him. “But you’re so early. I didn’t … expect you and …” He looked beyond her. “Where’s Faye?”
“She’ll be here later,” Susie said. “May I come in?”
“Oh, but … sure,” he said stepping back quickly. “It’s not much of a room, as you can see.”
She paused inside the door and gazed around at the worn carpet, the stained wallpaper, the unmade bed, and the dull brown night table and dresser. There was one chair by a small table to the left.
“I was just finishing dressing,” he said, permitting himself to look directly at her. Of course, he had never been this close to her before, but he wasn’t disappointed. If anything, he thought she was prettier than Faye, especially because of the way her hair framed her face. Faye’s short hair made her face look chubbier.
He was surprised to see that Susie wore her maid’s uniform. Maybe she really didn’t have any wardrobe. But why couldn’t she have borrowed something from Faye? However, the uniform looked different. With the buttons undone and the collar pulled apart, it was a far sexier garment. Enough cleavage was revealed for him to see that there was a tiny birthmark on the inside of her left breast. He longed to touch it with the tip of his finger.
When he looked up and into those cerulean blue eyes, his heartbeat not only quickened, it skipped. His own partial nudity added to this unexpected but delightful excitement. The erection that was building nudged against his briefs. He felt his skin warm. She smiled softly, her lips wet, the tip of her tongue just visible between them.
“It’s okay,” she finally said. “A room is a room. What makes it nice is the people who are in it, don’t you think?”
“Oh sure. Yeah. Sure. Um … I don’t have anything to offer you. Just water.”
“I don’t need anything. She turned her shoulders in just a little, but the move pushed her breasts up, giving them even more exposure. “Faye thought it would be nice for us to have a chance alone first,” she said.
The revelation of this motive put Corpsy into a frenzy for a moment. They were actually alone, weren’t they? He looked about, trying to decide what move to make next, what to offer.
“That’s very nice of her. I guess I should finish getting dressed, though, huh?”
“No,” Susie said quickly. “Let’s just relax. When people are relaxed, they are more honest with each other, right?”
“I suppose. Yeah,” he said. There wasn’t anything she could say or do that he would disagree with right now, he thought.
She surprised him by sitting on his bed.
“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t make that. I don’t usually leave things messy. I took a nap this afternoon and …”
“I don’t mind.” She ran the palm of her hand over the exposed sheet. “It still feels warm. You must have a warm body. Faye says some people’s normal temperature can be a full degree or two above what’s considered normal.” Suddenly, she sat forward and put that palm against his chest. He started to pull back, but Susie touching him and him feeling her so soon was too wonderful and unexpected a pleasure to deny. “Yes,” she said, “you are a warm man.” She smiled and laughed. “Well?” she asked.
“What?” He didn’t know what to say or where to put his nervous hands.
“Aren’t you curious about me?”
“Curious about … you mean, whether you’re warm or not?”
“Yes, silly.” She reached down and seized his left wrist, bringing his hand up to her exposed chest. She pressed his fingers on her bosom and looked into his shocked face. “So?”
“You’re warm, too,” he said, pulling his hand back.
“I know. Sit down beside me,” she said, patting the bed. “You must tell me about yourself. I don’t remember seeing you in Phoenix.”
Gingerly, he sat down and held his towel closed.
“Well, I was nervous and shy about meeting you then,” he said. He blushed. “I used to watch you from a distance.”
“You used to spy on me?”
“Yeah, I suppose you could say that. But the moment I set eyes on you …”
“What?” she asked in a breathy, excited way.
“I thought you were beautiful and someone I had to know and maybe could love,” he confessed.
“That’s so nice. No one has ever said anything like that to me before. Probably because of this,” she said, lifting the skirt of her uniform so her brace was fully visible.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” he said. “Why should your handicap make any difference. It doesn’t make you less of a person or less beautiful. In fact … it kind of makes you more beautiful to me.”
She stared at him with her warm smile, her eyes brightening.
<
br /> “My sister said that any man who would come so far to meet me must be sincere,” she said.
“I am. I don’t even like the idea of your being in here alone with me. I never intended …”
“Oh, I don’t mind. I know you’re not that sort, but we should be alone and we should see if we do care for each other, shouldn’t we?”
“I guess so,” he said.
“We already know we like touching each other,” she said, laughing.
“Oh, I love touching you. There’s nothing I want more.”
“As long as you’re always gentle with me and understand that I’m … I’m not very sophisticated,” she admitted.
“That means nothing to me. I’m far from what you would call sophisticated.”
“Oh, I bet you’ve had a lot of girlfriends.”
“Me? No, ma’am. No.”
“You mean we’re both … virgins?”
“I guess so,” he said.
“That’s good, because we’ll make discoveries together and Faye says when two people do that, they find it easier to love each other.”
“I bet she’s right.”
“Oh, I’m sure she’s right. She’s usually right about most things.”
“She’s a very good nurse. I know,” he said nodding.
“Will you kiss me?” Susie asked.
“What?”
“Will you just lean over and kiss me?” She closed her eyes and pursed her lips.
Corpsy took a deep breath and looked around the room as if he wanted to be sure this wasn’t all a dream. Then he swallowed and leaned forward to press his lips to hers. It was a quick kiss, and to illustrate that she didn’t think it was enough, she kept her eyes closed and her lips pursed. He swallowed again and leaned forward to kiss her harder and longer. The moment he did so, she put her hand on his shoulder. She kept it there when he lifted his lips from hers.
“That was very nice,” she said.
“Thanks.”
“You know that I’m shy.”
“Well … I thought you might be, but …”
“I am shy. I’m just very excited right now and very happy. Aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” he said, nodding.
“Kiss me again,” she said. “Go on.”
Corpsy did as she asked. He thought he was on fire. She moaned and leaned against him, kissing his neck and his shoulders. Her caresses both excited and frightened him. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, was it? He was sorry now that he had had such limited experience with women. What was he supposed to do? Was she testing him? If he turned her away, would she resent him and be angry? Or would she be angrier if he returned the kisses and the caresses?
“Your sister might be coming soon,” he said to test the waters.
“No. She won’t be here for a while. Besides, she’ll call first. Girls know what to do,” Susie said, winking. She kissed him on the tip of his nose before pressing her lips to his again and pushing herself on him so that he fell back on the bed. He kept his hands at his sides as she kissed her way down his chest and then fingered the towel around his waist.
“Don’t you like me?” she asked when he didn’t respond.
“Oh yes, I just thought you’d be angry if I …”
“I won’t be angry, but you’ve got to hold me and kiss me and do love the way I want to do love the first few times, because I’m shy. I told you. I’ve never been with a man like this.”
“Of course,” he said, and he kissed her quickly. She laughed and stood up to unbutton her uniform. But she paused before taking it off.
“Turn over,” she said. “I don’t want you to look at me right away.”
“Okay.” He turned over.
“I’ll help you, though, if you don’t mind,” she said, and he felt her fingers under the elastic of his briefs. He lifted his body as she pulled them down. Then he felt the palm of her hand on his buttocks. “You’re as smooth as a baby,” she said. He laughed, too.
“I’ve got to go into the bathroom first and do something girls do,” she said. “Faye would be very angry if I didn’t.”
“Of course,” he said. He started to turn.
“No,” she said sharply. “Don’t move and don’t look back at me, okay?”
“Okay.”
He lay there while she picked up her purse and went into the bathroom. His erection was so full and firm, it nearly lifted his lower body off the bed. A few moments later, he heard her approach the bed and then he felt her naked body over his, her breasts on his back, her pubic hair against his leg as she clamped her legs around his. Her brace was cold against his hot skin. She moaned, and he closed his eyes and moaned softly, too.
“Susie,” he murmured, “my Susie.”
Was this really happening? He was in the greatest ecstasy of his life.
“Don’t look,” she said when he started to turn his head. He pressed his forehead to the sheet and obeyed. Then he felt her body lift from his. A moment later, there was a pinprick pain in his neck that grew and grew. He started to lift himself up, but she pressed her knees against the small of his back and the pain continued for a moment more. It was as if a giant bee had gotten stuck in him.
Finally he screamed and flailed out, pushing her off him. Then he turned and sat up. She was on the floor, naked, but in her right hand there was a hypodermic needle, its contents emptied.
The effect was immediate. He started to speak but experienced a tightness in his throat. His eyelids felt like they had turned to stone and his breathing shortened until he was gasping for air. He struggled to stand. Susie got to her feet and scooped up her uniform as he fell to the floor and then grasped the bed to pull himself up again. She put on the uniform quickly, gathered her purse, dropped the hypodermic into it, and rushed to the door as he collapsed to the floor again, his guttural noises ugly. When she looked back, he was clutching his rib cage. His face was turning blue.
She looked around the parking lot as Faye had instructed, waited to be sure it was clear, and then closed the door quietly and moved as quickly as she could with her limp to the car.
“Well?” Faye asked as soon as she got into the car.
“It went just as you said it would, Faye,” Susie said, gasping slightly. She was so excited she couldn’t find the key, and Faye had to tell her it was still in the ignition.
“Go on, get us out of here quickly,” Faye said, sitting back.
Susie started the car and drove out. In moments they were down the street.
“I’m proud of you, Susie,” Faye said. “So proud.”
Back in the room, Corpsy had managed to drag himself toward the door. He put all his strength and determination into reaching for that doorknob. When his fingers found it, he closed them as best he could and pulled and pulled, but it seemed like his arm was pulling away from his body. He wasn’t rising and he wasn’t getting any air into his lungs. He did manage to turn the knob so that the door clicked open. He fell back to the floor, his nose close to the opening.
And there he died of respiratory failure, looking like a fish out of water, his eyes bulging, his lips swollen, his tongue a pale pink, his ecstasy cut short forever.
19
Jennie was sitting in the living room with the lights low. Frankie closed the front door softly and almost tiptoed into the house. At the moment, he would rather charge into a den of terrorists, guns blasting. He paused in the living room doorway. The weak illumination cast a long, dark shadow over Jennie’s face, making it look as gaunt as death.
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” he asked.
“Isn’t it funny,” she said, “how even when things can be simple, we make them complicated. We are our worst enemies.”
“Jen …”
“I called Dr. Pauling. Something told me your story was a fabrication. That’s a nice way of saying you lied to me, Frankie. Now I don’t know who’s more furious, me or the doctor.”
“Oh, those specialists,” Frankie said, stepping into t
he living room. “If they don’t get things exactly their way … They’re prima donnas, that’s what they are, the prima donnas of the medical world.”
“It’s not Dr. Pauling who has to be worried.”
“It’s no big deal. It’s just a matter of schedules,” Frankie claimed. “If I were in the middle of a life-and-death situation …”
“You could be,” Jennie snapped.
“Jennie, I haven’t so much as walked fast since I was in the hospital. I haven’t lifted anything that weighs more than … than a pencil.”
“Why did you do it, Frankie? Why did you postpone getting this over with?”
“Jen,” he said sitting on the sofa, “I stumbled on something … you wouldn’t believe. You see,” he said becoming visibly excited, “I had this warning bell go off in my head when Rosina told me about this suicide the other day. I never liked loose ends. If something is cut-and-dried, it shouldn’t have loose ends. Anyway, there was this medication …”
“I heard about this already, Frankie.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t hear the follow-up. Turns out there was a maid looking after the victim the night before. No one knew her and only this old gent saw her. His description was worthless until he mentioned this leg brace she wears, see.
“Anyway, turns out the maid’s the twin sister of this private-duty nurse who took care of the victim’s wife. That situation in and of itself isn’t a bell ringer, but …”
“Frankie.”
“No, wait, listen,” he said, hoping to infect her with his enthusiasm. “The two of them are involved in the same way with the next suicide victim, Tommy Livingston, who again is killed with an overdose of medicine. I check out the nurse’s background and find she worked in Phoenix …”
“Frankie, for God’s sake, you’re actively involved in a potential murder case, and a suspected serial killing to boot!”
“It’s not a big deal physically. I’m not wrestling with anyone. I’m doing some hard-nose, nitty-gritty police work: phone calls, a little research, some interviewing …”
“Couldn’t this be done by someone else, Frankie? You’re not the only cop in Palm Springs.”
Angel of Mercy Page 18
