Chapter 13
Deja woke up the next morning completely refreshed. She had tried calling Mort before going to bed, but only got his machine. She missed hearing his voice, so she decided to call him this morning.
The phone rang. And before she could hear him say 'hello,' Deja yelled "Morning sunshine!" into the receiver.
"What?" Mort said groggily.
"Hey hon, we missed each other yesterday so I wanted to call you bright and early," she was way too perky for this time in the morning, Mort thought.
"Can I call you back after I've actually woken up?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied, a little saddened.
The phone line went dead and Deja just stared at it in her hand. She couldn't believe Mort. She knew he wasn't an early bird, but she just knew he'd be happy to hear from her. Needless to say, her feelings were hurt. She decided she would try to get through the day without this bothering her. Maybe Mort just had a bad night and he needed to relax before he could talk.
Mort finally woke up around 1 o'clock. He had the worst headache and the beaming sunlight coming in through the bedroom window was not helping. He staggered towards the window and pulled the shade down.
He slowly made his way out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Just before hitting the bottom step, he stopped short because of what he saw lying on his coffee table. It was the black hat that haunted to him for so long. He last remembered putting it in the trunk of his car. That was almost two years ago. What was it doing in his house?
He sat on his couch looking directly at the hat. He never touched it though. He didn't want to take the chance that his alter ego, Shooter, would come back. After the whole Amy incident, Shooter became a huge part of Mort's life. And then all of a sudden, he was gone. Mort had decided to put that part of his life behind him. He was moving forward, and when he really felt like his life was finally on track, Deja entered it. She was literally the best thing that happened to him. He couldn't allow Shooter to come back and mess that up.
Just then, his focus switched from Shooter and 'the hat' to Deja's wake up call this morning. He was way too out of it to talk to her then, but regretted the way he came off to her. He needed to call her and make sure she was okay.
After six rings, her answering machine came on. Mort decided to leave a message, "Hi Deja...it's me...sorry I was so brief with you this morning, but I was too worn out to carry on any kind of conversation. I do apologize though. Call me."
Because he felt like he needed to hear her voice, he tried her cell phone as well. It went straight to her voice mail. He figured she had it turned off because she was at work. He decided not to leave a message. He knew he'd talk to her soon enough.
Deja got home around 5:30 pm. After putting away her things, taking a shower, and finally settling in for the evening she saw that she had one message on the answering machine. She played it and heard Mort's voice fill the room. He was apologizing for this morning. She couldn't stay mad at him. She was partly to blame for waking him so early anyway.
She went back to her bedroom, preparing to do some reading before she went to sleep. Once seated comfortably in her bed with her book on her night stand, she picked up her cordless phone and dialed Mort's number.
Knowing it had to be Deja on the other end, Mort answered on the first ring with, "You're not mad at me, are you?" in the sweetest, childlike voice he could manage.
It immediately made Deja smile, and with a little chuckle she said, "No, of course not. I'm sorry for even waking you up that early. I just needed to hear your voice."
"I can't wait to see you next week," he said.
"Me either. I'm counting down the days."
"So, what are your plans for tonight?" Mort asked.
"Not much. I've got this book I'm reading, by this really great author," she paused, "let's see..." she pretended to look at the book jacket, "ah, Morton Rainey...yeah, that's it. I think I'm gonna try and finish it tonight."
"Hmmm, Morton Rainey. Never heard of the guy," he quipped back.
"Well, you should read his stuff, it could make the New York Times bestseller's list. Oh, and he's a real cutie too," Deja tried to remain as serious as possible, but she let out a small giggle.
"So I've got competition now?"
"Maybe...maybe not," she replied. Finally, in a completely serious tone she told Mort that she loved him.
"I love you too," he said equally as serious.
"And I'm really loving the book. I've only got like 40 more pages to go."
"I'm glad you like it. I always get nervous when people close to me read my work," he replied honestly.
"Well, I'm pleasantly surprised at your talent Mr. Rainey. But if you want me to finish reading it I suppose we better get off this phone."
"I hate to let you go...but I suppose I can talk to you tomorrow," and he quickly threw in, "but not before 10 o'clock."
They both laughed. "Deal," Deja said. "I love you, Mort."
"I love you too, Deja. Goodnight." And with that they both hung up. That conversation alone put her on cloud nine. The affect that Mort had on her was amazing.
After finishing the book, she decided to turn on the television and let it put her to sleep. She decided to put the Channel 9 news on since she had missed out on what was happening in the world all day. As soon as she began to drift off to a peaceful sleep, disturbing words filled her ears.
The news anchor was saying something about a wrongful death in the area. Deja focused her attention on the square screen in front of her bed.
"...now we'll turn it over to Paula Thomas at the crime scene..."
Just then a petite woman with long blonde hair came onto the screen.
"I'm here at the Rivergate Apartment complex, where some time last night a fatal stabbing occurred. The body of Darrell Williamson, age 32, was found early this morning by his girlfriend Celeste Parker. Mr. Williamson was stabbed a total of 12 times in the chest. At this time the police have no suspects. We will have more on this story as it unfolds. Back to you Debra."
Just then a picture of Darrell flashed across the screen. The anchor woman in the news room gave out the number to the police station in case anyone had any information.
Deja couldn't believe her ears or eyes. He was with Deja, just last night. She couldn't believe someone had actually killed Darrell. Her mind began to race as tears flowed from her eyes. Even though she didn't feel like she could be friends with Darrell, she didn't want anything like this to happen to him either.
If his girlfriend didn't find him until this morning, Deja figured she was the last person to have been with him. She was glad that they at least left each other on amicable terms. She pictured him waving to her as she drove off from the diner. Just then she figured that the police would be coming to her for questions. She was somehow going to get sucked into all of this. Which also meant she had to come clean with Mort and let him know she had been out with her ex. She could only hope he'd be understanding.
