WALKING WITH ACHILLES
Chapter 17
Upon entering the Sparkle & Shine establishment, Sam's initial nervousness about Derek was put aside for the most part. His focus at that moment became the young woman behind the narrow counter who looked up when the bell over the door chimed and immediately rushed around the counter to him, her expression both shocked and sympathetic.
"Tommie, darlin' what happened?" Cissy Cronkite gasped as she lightly took the leaper by the shoulders and peered closely at his face. Sam's response was muffled as he was enveloped in a gentle hug for a moment before being released and Cissy put an arm around his shoulders to lead him to the door that led into the back area of the business. There, in the small locker room he was immediately surrounded by several other women of various ages, all of them wearing Sparkle & Shine uniforms identical to the one he wore.
The moment she got a good look at Tommie Emerson's face, Lilly Teasdale, a middle-aged woman with short, tight dark curly hair with a liberal sprinkling of gray and snapping blue eyes, hurried across the small room to the youngest member of the cleaning team she headed. Getting close to her team member, Lilly demanded, albeit gently, "Tommie, what happened? My gawd, hon, you look like you been dragged under a bus!"
Though it was a lie, it was the one Sam knew and stuck with it, adding only the embellishment that Derek had given it at the time it happened. "I…," he managed a small sheepish laugh, shaking his head carefully a couple of times. "I was standing on a chair to reach a can of peaches on the top shelf in the kitchen yesterday and…" He chuckled weakly, hating the lie. "And when I reached for it, I overbalanced and the chair tipped and I…hit the corner of the counter when I fell."
As the group of women clustered around him, expressing their sympathy, a couple of them giving him a gentle hug, as he reassured them that, yes, he had been to see a doctor, it was the safest and most secure that Sam had felt since he'd opened his eyes at the beginning of this leap. It was like he could feel the women's sympathy and expressions of comfort and suggestions for how to ease the discomfort of his injures seeping through his skin. That encouragement came in handy a few minutes later when Jerry Groves, the owner and manager of Sparkle & Shine entered the locker room to hand out cleaning location assignments to the leaders of the five, four-person teams on duty today.
While a businessman through and through, it was well known to his employees, that Jerry Groves really cared about them as individuals, and upon seeing Tommie Emerson's battered appearance, he did his level best to get her to take the day off. It had taken Sam several earnest minutes of talking under the intense but caring gazes of a roomful of Tommie's co-workers to convince Mr. Groves that, in spite of his appearance, that he was quite capable of performing Tommie's duties for the day's assignments and wanted to so. A dozen or so sets of eyes were all fixed on him as he, when prompted, dug in his purse for the medical release from Tommie's doctor. Handing it to Tommie's boss, Sam then heaved a very unsubtle sigh of relief at the man's decision to allow him to work the shift. It had encouraged him even a little more when Jerry Groves had given Lilly Teasdale a pointed look before shifting his gaze back to him, saying, "The only provision I'll make to my decision, Tommie, is that if at any time you feel unwell, that you advise your team leader who will bring you back here immediately so that you can get medical attention."
"Yes, sir, I'll do exactly that," Sam promised with a grateful smile. Right now, the last thing he wanted to do was to return to the Emerson house if he didn't absolutely have to do so.
The teams dispersed a few minutes later to their various cleaning assignments. At his team's first of two assignments, Sam's injuries worked to his advantage, in that Lilly gave him the least physically stressful task, sending him to tidy the kitchen, including unloading and loading the dishwasher. Even when gently reminded by Patricia, one of the other team members, that he had to scrub the kitchen floor on his hands and knees, it didn't daunt Sam. As it turned out, the simple tasks and physical exercise relaxed him, giving him time to ponder on exactly how he was going to put an end to Derek Emerson's killing spree
For lunch the team stopped at a small family-type restaurant, hurrying through the lightly drizzling rain. There, much to the surprise of his teammates, Lilly, Patricia and Anna, Sam ordered then proceeded to polish off a six-inch roast beef po'boy along with a side of potato salad and a large glass of Coke. Compared to his companions and their smaller club sandwiches on toast and bowls of seafood gumbo, Sam ate like the proverbial lumberjack. Popping the last spoonful of potato salad in his mouth, he couldn't help blushing when Patricia had teased, "Girl, I ain't never seen you eat like that. Don't tell me you're already eatin' for two now." The others had laughed heartily when Sam immediately blurted, "No way!" a sheepish grin slowly appearing on his face.
By the time the team reached the Kent estate, their second assignment, the rain was coming down at a steadier rate, and the grayish thick overlay of clouds had darkened ominously. Yet even a spring rainstorm wasn't allowed to deter a Sparkle & Shine cleaning team, and promptly at one thirty p.m., Lilly Teasdale led her team to the door at the back of the house, near the kitchen, where Jane Corkern, housekeeper for Allison Kent for eight years, was waiting to admit them. Upon seeing Sam's battered face, and with point blank frankness, Jane turned to Lilly and asked, "Is she up to working today?"
"Of course, Tommie's up to the job," she stated, her tone firm as she looked the housekeeper in the eye. "We've already finished one assignment today, ma'am, and Tommie didn't miss a beat."
That had been good enough for Jane Corkern. "All right," she pronounced, giving the battered leaper another quick look up and down before shifting her mind to the business at hand.
"There aren't any special jobs that need doing today," she informed Lilly as she cast an eye toward Sam and the other two women as they waited for specific assignments. "Just the usual," she added unnecessarily. "When Miss Allison gets back from wherever she gallivanted off to last night, I just want everything…"
"Sparkling and shining?" Lilly suggested lightly, her blue eyes twinkling with a hint of humor. She just nodded when she saw the housekeeper's lips twitch a bit before she chuckled slightly as Jane simply agreed, "Yes." It was clear that this wasn't the first time such a friendly exchange had happened between the housekeeper and the particular cleaning team she requested each time she called Sparkle & Shine. Glancing around one last time, Jane Corkern nodded then went on about her other tasks.
To Sam, every room in Allison Kent's sprawling home that he stepped into, looked spic and span and polished to within an inch of every surface's life. But a job was job, and for the next three hours, he forgot about Derek as he helped Patricia dust and vacuum every room on the main floor of the house. His last task was to polish the entire curving length of the dark mahogany banisters of the sweeping "open fan" staircase in the main foyer. Finally he reached the foot of the staircase again, gave the ornately carved newel post one last brisk rub with the polishing cloth then turned and surveyed the result of his hard work. He'd just chuckled and grinned, wincing when the healing splits on his lower lip twinged when he did so, when he heard Lilly's voice behind him, saying, "Any fly trying to land anywhere on either of those banisters is going to go into a skid and slide right off the other side of it and break its neck!"
Lilly Teasdale had, as required of the team leader, inspected every room and area that the team touched. She had also kept a fairly close eye on the person she thought was Tommie Emerson, but after about an hour, was satisfied that the young woman was okay to work alone and set about her own tasks. Now, she turned at the sound of footsteps, seeing Patricia and Anna coming toward her and chatting with the housekeeper, and went to meet them.
"I trust everything is to your satisfaction, Mrs. Corkern?" Lilly inquired, smiling as she double-checked the work order then presented it to the housekeeper for her signature.
Jane Corkern took the work assignment order, signed it and handed it back to Lilly, smiling. "As always, Lilly. You and your team always do the finest job every time. Everything just shines so much it almost hurts my eyes to look around." The words had barely left her lips when…….
BOOM!
All five of them jumped, nearly of one accord at the huge clap of thunder. It was more than enough to bring them back to the moment. "Sounds like that storm's getting' ready to start really kicking up," Anna said.
Lilly nodded. "Are all of the equipment and supplies back in the van?" she asked, her manner back to business again. She nodded when Anna confirmed that she and Patricia had just finished. "Good," she said. "Then we better get a move on. Maybe we'll get lucky and beat the worst of that storm to town."
Sam followed his teammates back through the house to the kitchen and from there to the back entrance. He brought up the rear of the small group as they filed out the door, nodding and smiling at the housekeeper as he passed her. Turning, he looked out the door to see Anna standing there, waiting for him and holding her open umbrella out for him to share with her, a broad smile on her face.
"What?" Sam said lightly as he stepped out the door and under the umbrella. Behind him, he heard the door being closed and locked, but Sam was focused on how Anna's gaze darted to something behind him then met his gaze again. The twinkle in her eyes told him something was up as he turned to see what was so funny. That suspicion was only confirmed when he saw Lilly and Patricia already at the van, each under her own umbrella, a vaguely mischievous little smile on each one's face as he and Anna walked quickly through the rain to the van. Upon reaching the other two women, Sam, ready to take whatever teasing was about to come to him in stride, stopped when Anna did then fixed each of them with a good-natured suspicious eye. "Okay, what are you up to?" he demanded. "And before you say 'nothing'…don't." A sudden gust of wind blew strongly around them, driving the rain against Anna and Sam's backs, causing them to reflexively hunch their shoulders and wait for the wind to subside. Sam shivered and shoved his hands into his pockets. Looking around at the waiting women, the mischief in each one's expression still firmly in place, he added, "I'd sooner believe that it's not raining than that you three aren't up to something."
"We were just waiting for you, Tommie," Lilly said firmly, then turned to open the driver's door. "Come on you three, get in the truck already before we're all soaked to the skin."
Sam wasn't given an option of not doing as instructed, forced to turn quickly to keep pace with Anna and her umbrella as she turned and went around the back of the van while Patricia went around the front. A fleeting notion occurred to him that the expression of the young woman beside him reminded him of his sister, Katie, as child, when she was setting either he or Tom up for one of her pranks.
Hearing a door open and shut and as he and Anna rounded the end of the van and turned to go get into it, Sam looked up, still expecting to be confronted with some sort of teasing … and froze in his steps, his heart already in his throat.
"Hi, sweetheart," Derek said, the loving concern in his voice a perfect match for the smile on his lips as he quickly straightened up from his leaning position against the van to move past Patricia Devlin to get to his wife. Gripping the handle of a large green and white golf umbrella firmly, he went to Sam and deftly slipped his free arm behind the leaper's waist and gave him a little hug. Reading his wife's startled expression, Derek covered easily, "I know you said you were okay when I left the house this morning, honey. But I just couldn't stop thinking about you and worrying about you. So I called your job and the girl told me where you all were working. That's when I decided to surprise you and drive out to pick you up early." Giving his wife another little hug, Derek made a show of planting a kiss carefully on Sam's cheek nearest him then drew back to look lovingly into the leaper's eyes, saying softly for the other women's benefit, "I'm going to take you home and take good care of you, baby."
The moment 'Tommie' and Anna had started around the back of the van, Lilly had quickly closed the partially open driver's side door and hurried around the front of the van, ready to enjoy the unexpected surprise that had appeared for Tommie in the form of her handsome husband. Reaching Patricia and sharing a conspiratorial chuckle, her gaze shifted in the direction of the end of the van. No way was she going to miss the sight of Tommie's expression when she saw her husband.
All three women laughed delightedly at what they saw as Tommie Emerson's startled --but surely pleased-- expression when she beheld her husband. And when Derek Emerson had kissed her colleague's poor bruised face, a little thrill of satisfaction made Lilly shiver lightly all over and she and Patricia exchanged cat-in-the-cream grins. But those grins lost a tad of their brightness when Tommie started to speak.
The sideways hug, to those looking on, appeared to be a gentle and genuine embrace of affection. Had any one of the women on his Sparkle & Shine team been closer and their view not affected, even slightly, by the darkening overcast sky and the rain, they might have seen the way Sam's eyebrows knit for a second as he winced subtly when Derek's fingers dug into his side so hard that he felt the other man's fingernails through the knit material of his shirt. Being so face-to-face close, the leaper also saw beneath the concern in Derek Emerson's eyes to the anger and worse just waiting for a solitary moment to come out. For a second, as he looked into the veneer of Derek Emerson's caring concern, Sam was again back at the beginning of this leap and was afraid. But that near paralyzing fear was just as immediately displaced by the memory of besting Derek, albeit with the aid of a carving knife, but it was enough.
Licking his lips a bit, Sam forced himself to remain calm as he gave Derek a hesitant smile. "You're so thoughtful," he said lightly, placing his left hand over Derek's still painfully tight grip on his waist. "But I can't just leave now." He winced again, nibbling nervously at the inside of his lower lip as he watched the anger in Derek Emerson's eyes begin to darken. "Isn't that right, Lilly?" he shifted his gaze to the team leader anxiously.
Derek laughed lightly as he pulled his wife tighter against his side, and slid a beguiling, wheedling expression at Lilly Teasdale, turning up the 'volume' of his charm. "I'll bet, if you asked her, Lilly would clock you out…wouldn't you, Lilly?"
"Oh, no, no, I couldn't," Sam said, trying to remain calm as he managed to wiggle free of Derek's vise-like grip on his waist, but it wasn't quick enough to escape Derek's hand recapturing his wrist. "After all, I don't want to lose my job…or cause someone else to lose theirs, because I…wanted to go home a little early. Isn't that right, Lilly?" However, a glance at Lilly Teasdale's expression told Sam that the team's leader had succumbed to Derek's charm and masterful manipulation.
"Oh for sure, honey," Lilly assured Derek. "No problem at all." Turning a genuine look of caring concern on her young colleague, Lilly smiled and said, "Now you just run along home, Tommie, and let your hubby fuss over you and take care of you." Nudging Patricia subtly with her elbow, Lilly added, "After some TLC and a good night's sleep, I'll bet you beignets to king cake that when you wake up in the morning, you're gonna feel so much better."
Taking advantage of Lilly Teasdale's comments, and with practiced ease, Derek used Sam's balance against him. Keeping a firm grip on the handle of the large golf umbrella he held, Derek deftly pulled the leaper back then slid his arm quickly around Sam's waist, hugging him familiarly back against himself. Determined to keep the other members of his wife's work team firmly on his side, Derek leaned in a bit to press his cheek to the side of Sam's head then made a show of nuzzling near his ear. With his mouth thus obscured from the other women, he whispered menacingly under his breath, "Quit stalling you two-timing bitch, and get in the car!"
"B..but…" Sam stammered softly, his heart thudding against his ribs.
Derek's rage was rising but he kept a steely grip on it. Laughing softly, he kissed the spot behind Sam's ear again, hissing, "If you don't want me to keep my promise to you right here…"
"P..promise?" Sam murmured, too intent on trying to get away from Derek that he didn't see how Lilly and Patricia both twittered behind their hands and exchanged winks when they heard what Sam said.
"Yeah," Derek hissed softly. "About Main Street?"
In a split second, Sam's memory of the leap in flashed through his mind, hearing yet again Derek's cold, emotionless threat of a little over twenty-fours ago: "I'll gut you, you worthless whore, and dump your body in the middle of Main Street."
There wasn't a grain of doubt in the leaper's mind that Derek Emerson wouldn't hesitate to carry out his 'promise'. For as much as the cold-blooded killer at his back frightened him –commonsense dictated that only a fool wouldn't be afraid—he was more concerned that if he didn't comply, that Derek would take out his rage on the three innocent, unsuspecting women watching them. No…four, counting the housekeeper, who would likely come running when the screaming began.
Forcing himself to pretend to give in, Sam pasted on a hesitant smile as he gave a couple of quick, tight little nods. Casting his gaze at Lilly for a second, Sam turned his head vaguely to glance at Derek's face next to his own. "Okay," he said softly. "You…you're both right. I guess I will feel better after a…good night's sleep." Vaguely he heard the women voicing their approval, but all he saw were Derek's cold eyes above his perfect smile. Sam made himself react appropriately as Derek continued to act the part of a concerned and loving husband, though he knew good and well that once Derek got him alone the loving husband persona would be discarded and the ugliness that was Derek Emerson's anger and rage would explode.
"Smart girl," Derek hissed behind Sam's ear as in the next moment his manner, tone and expression morphed into the mask that was the face he showed the world. "That's my girl," he said with a pleased smile, shifting position a bit so he was once again standing beside the leaper. Quickly he moved his arm behind Sam's waist, his fingers once more digging hard into the leaper's side. Glancing around at the women, he nodded to each then deftly turned Sam and headed back toward the corner of the house.
"Where are we going?" Sam whispered through dry lips as he walked woodenly beside Derek through the now steadier downpour.
"I parked the car over here on the side," Derek said. At the corner of the house, his hand now gripping Sam's upper arm tightly, he moved around the corner of the house and immediately the red Chevy Caprice came in sight. They had just reached the car and Derek had opened the passenger side door and was about to shove Sam in when the Sparkle & Shine van came slowly around the corner as the crew headed back to town.
"Smile and wave at them," Derek hissed, turning his head so that the occupants of the van couldn't see his face. Seeing the hesitation on his wife's face, he growled, naked menace in his voice and eyes, "Do it!"
Sam did what he was told, nodding lightly as he gave a tiny wave as the van moved past them. The van had barely started down the wide curving driveway that led down to the main road when Derek, still mindful that a glimpse in a rearview mirror by the van's driver might cause suspicion if he were seen being anything but kind to his wife, snarled, "Get in the car." He furled the umbrella, reaching inside the open car door to toss it into the back seat. When Sam didn't move quickly enough to suit him, Derek grabbed him by the arm and physically forced Sam into the front seat of the car.
"Ahh!" Sam gasped, wincing when his temple collided with the car's frame as he was pushed into the car. While he was still bent over slightly toward the driver's seat, his right wrist was grabbed and he was jerked upright in his seat. "What…" It was all Sam got out before his head snapped sharply to the left as Derek managed a backhanded slap within the close confines of the car's front seat area.
"Shut up!" Derek bellowed furiously as he grabbed Sam's other wrist. Holding both of the momentarily dazed leaper's wrists with one hand, he reached down and felt about under the seat and pulled out a length of rope. With the ease of much practice, Derek rapidly cinched three loops of the coarse rope tightly around Sam's wrists and tied a secure knot.
The bite of the hemp rope on his flesh was enough to help Sam fight through the last vestiges of the stunning backhand. "Derek, please…no…this isn't right."
"NOT RIGHT?" Derek yelled in his wife's clearly frightened face. "You wanna know what's not RIGHT, Tommie?" Grabbing the ends of the rope still dangling after securely tying the knots on her bound hands, Derek, jerked down on them, and when his 'wife's' body went with the hard yank, reached down and tied her bound wrists to her legs, cinching the ends of the rope tightly then tied it behind her knees.
"I'll damn well tell you what's not right," Derek shouted, his fury causing tiny droplets of spittle to fly from his lips and hit Sam's face. "What's not right is that because of her arrogant rich bitch attitude my mother denied me what was rightfully mine when my grandparents disowned me right along with her."
Derek continued to push his face closer and closer, forcing his wife to press back harder and harder against the seat until she couldn't go any farther back. Grabbing his wife's face with one hand, and forcing her chin up, he glared into her eyes and shouted, "She denied me my inheritance!" He saw the way she winced as his fingers clamped like a vise across her chin. Derek stared into her frightened eyes a moment longer before moving back a bit to fasten the seatbelt then straightened up and stepped back and slammed the door shut. Though fury coursed through his body at near the same speed as the blood in his veins, Derek still had his wits about him enough to cast wary glances around to discern whether or not anyone might have come out of the house and seen him. His luck, however, was holding – he didn't see anyone – and he went quickly around the car to slide behind the steering wheel of the Chevy Caprice. Twisting the key in the ignition, he put it into gear and backed up rapidly, then shifted into 'drive' and drove quickly down the winding drive. It took less than a minute for him to catch up to within a couple of hundred yards of the Sparkle & Shine van as it approached the main road. Slowing the car to a crawl in order to maintain the distance between the two vehicles, Derek eased the car forward very slowly as if preparing to turn as soon as he could get to the road, but he didn't turn. Instead he just remained stationary, ignoring the windshield wipers' ceaseless back and forth swiping, watching the large white van, it's left rear turn signal blinking as Lilly Teasdale steered it out onto the road, driving at a moderate rate of speed. The instant the van disappeared from his line of sight, just as a precaution, Derek eased the car forward just in time to catch sight of the rear of the van before it again disappeared from his line of sight as it move well beyond the wrought iron gateway. For a moment or so the only sound inside the Caprice was that of the windshield wipers steady swishing, the car's engine. Then, shifting the car into reverse, Derek turned slightly to watch as he steered the car into a reverse three-point turn. That accomplished, he shifted into drive again and started back up the driveway toward the house, then increased his speed a bit as he veered off onto a graveled path leading toward the nine-hole golf course situated back of Allison Kent's estate. Only then, as he steered the car forward did Derek slide a look over at his wife's ashen face then returned his gaze straight ahead.
"What's not right," he bit each word off sharply, focusing his attention on keeping the car on the graveled road as the rain came down even a little harder, "is when people's attitudes change and they look down their noses at you because you're not their equal anymore." Every word that spewed forth from the festering depths of Derek Emerson's outrage over how his life had turned out was hotter than its predecessor and steadily continued stirring his outrage to a fever pitch. Then in the next instant the moment that, for him, was the most mocking slap in the face seared across his memory and, without warning, he turned his head to glare hotly at his wife. Without warning, Derek drew back his right hand and delivered a vicious backhand slap to her head and causing her awkwardly bound figure to slam against the passenger side door, causing her to gasp in pain.
"What's not right," Derek shouted as he steered the car around one last curve before stamping on the brake pedal, thereby causing the rear of the car to fishtail slightly before coming to a full stop. "Is my wife two-timing me in my own house with some sonofabitch older than her own father!" Wrenching the key out of the ignition, he got out of the car and stalked around it.
In the midst of the pain from the backhanding, the still fresh memories of his earlier encounters with Derek Emerson's towering, murderous rage swirled inside Sam Beckett. Now, however it was the stronger memory of Al's scorching confrontation of his fear of this man that helped Sam to fight back the fear that was seeking to overwhelm him again. Though his heart was beating a staccato rhythm against his ribs, almost a match for the fresh pain throbbing in his head, as the car came to an abrupt halt, the memory of overcoming that fear aided Sam as he forced himself to not react to the tirade. He remained hunched—as much as being restrained by the seatbelt would allow—against the passenger side door, his head throbbing painfully. But Derek's comment just before he got out of the car sent a flood of icy realization through Sam as from within his whirling thoughts came a fleeting snippet of something Al had said to him during another leap: "Animals, little kids and the mentally absent can see me."… And now, the mentally unbalanced, too?
"Oh my God," Sam gasped under his breath. Struggling to push himself into a more upright position; it was barely enough time for him to glimpse out the windshield to see Derek stalking around the car just seconds before the passenger side door was yanked open.
Being so close to Derek Emerson's face allowed the leaper to get a frighteningly clear view of the fury in the man's eyes and expression. In spite of every survival instinct in him shrieking for him to try to get away, Sam forced himself to not move as Derek unfastened the seatbelt, then reached down to untie the knotted rope behind his knees. When the ends of the rope were sufficiently loosened, his wrists still securely bound, Sam stumbled, almost falling when Derek hauled him out of the car. He was unable to suppress the full body shiver that swept over him, due in equals parts to the fear rampant within him, as well as the heavy downpour of rain soaking his clothes and plastering them to his body, as Derek wrapped the ends of the rope around Sam's body and pulled them tight before tying them tightly behind his waist. Sam winced, gasping lightly when the enraged man grabbed him by the upper arm, dragging him along as he marched around the front of the car, going up a short graveled path through an opening in a tall hedge off to the left of the road. Sam blinked his eyes rapidly in an attempt to clear them of the rain steadily dripping from his hair and being blown into his face by the wind stirred up by the storm. Squinting, he peered through the gloomy gray shrouding of heavy rain as he was force-marched beside Derek across what looked like could be a golf green.
He ducked his head involuntarily when another huge crash of thunder boomed uncomfortably close by. It was in those nanoseconds of illumination as the sky lit up with multiple flashes of lightning that his wondering of why Derek had brought him here was answered. As they reached an opening in the opposite side of the hedge ringing the green expanse they had crossed, Sam caught sight of a path leading down to what looked like a small stream overhung by the great tossing heads of the trees lining its banks. In another flash of lightning, he saw fleeting points of light reflected off tiny wavelets stirred up by the wind on the water's surface. It was in that instant as he was pulled and dragged along as they started down the rain-slicked, muddy path that he recalled Al's recitation to him of the few facts about Allison Kent's death. An icy chill not caused by the rain ran down his spine as one particular bit of information now began to loop through his mind as he again heard Al saying, "According to a newspaper article, Allison Kent's mutilated body was discovered in the Petit Lis Bayou…it runs across the back of her estate." It was more than enough to push Sam to balk at going further, stopping in mid-stride and trying to twist free of Derek's vise-like grip on his upper arm. "Derek…no!" Sam insisted as he began to struggle, nearly losing his footing on the muddy incline.
However, all that Sam's struggling and protests, especially one word in particular, succeeded in doing was to push Derek Emerson's temper beyond mere fury into white-hot rage. Maintaining a steely grip on the leaper's upper arm, Derek shoved his free hand into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade, the blade flicking open with smooth precision in less than a blink of an eye. Derek pressed the point of the blade against Sam's throat, the sting as the switchblade's razor sharp tip effortlessly nicked through the outer layer of the leaper's skin and caused Sam to freeze into immobility and silence as he winced.
"Do that again," Derek warned, the cold expression in his eyes matching his tone, "and I'll cut your throat right here, right now, Tommie." Staring intently into his wife's bruised face, Derek didn't miss the way her gaze broke from his for a second, looking beyond him before a bit of added pressure on the switchblade brought those scared blue eyes back to his. His gaze narrowed as he searched her face intently then, keeping his grip on her arm tight and maintaining just enough pressure on the switchblade at her throat, he half turned to peer intently, trying to see through the heavy downpour shrouding the expanse of the ninth hole. His gaze darted quickly, checking out the shadows along the hedge, even sparing a glance upward at the lofty pitching tops of the tall old oaks and pines towering above the hedge. Nothing he saw struck him as suspicious but that didn't stop him from turning back to Sam and giving the leaper a hard shake and growling, "What were you looking at?"
"N…nothing. I…I…I swear," Sam babbled, his insides now a twisted, coiling knot of fear.
Derek twisted around to look again. Ducking his chin slightly and tilting his head a bit so the rain missed his eyes as much as possible, he scanned the area as closely as the heavy rainfall would permit. For a second he thought he saw some sort of movement near the opening out to the road and he stared intently at it. Only when he saw a brownish colored rabbit hop through the opening and a few feet onto the green before veering off to disappear into the shelter of the hedge did Derek relax his intense scrutiny. Satisfied that only he and his soon to be dead wife were present, he turned and continued to haul his frightened and unwilling next victim down the path to the muddy bank of the Petit Lis Bayou.
If Derek hadn't been so intent on getting on with the disposal of his wife, when the next flash of lightning occurred, his rage might have enabled him to see what Sam had seen over his shoulder. Namely, the Imagining Chamber door opening and Al stepping out then freezing in his steps, his dark eyes getting big as saucers upon seeing the ominous intensity of his best friend's dicey situation.
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For the two detectives, the open front passenger side door of the red Chevy Caprice parked a couple of hundred yards ahead of them in the middle of the narrow graveled road pretty much confirmed that it was empty, but that was an assumption. Both knew that relying wholly on an assumption as an answer was not only irresponsible and shoddy police work, it could also be potentially dangerous.
Cutting offthe engine, Boo got out of the car, closing the door carefully as he drew his gun, automatically releasing the safety. He noted that the rain was coming down harder, yet barely noticed it soaking into his clothes as he moved forward, arms extended, weapon ready as he cautiously approached the driver's side door of the Caprice. Hearing a soft, quick step behind him, he glanced back to see his partner, her own weapon drawn, mirroring his actions as she neared the open passenger side door. Sharing a look, they moved in tandem, each remaining a couple of feet from the vehicle as they scanned the clearly empty front seat then peered into the backseat. Siena didn't say anything as she moved back then around the rear of the car to her partner who was peering through the rain, scanning their surroundings. When he pointed to the opening in the tall hedge about ten feet off the left side of the road, she nodded her understanding. Siena remained watchful of the area behind and around them as she followed her partner toward the opening in the hedge large enough to admit a golf cart. To the right of the opening she saw a small sign that indicated that the broad open expanse beyond the hedge was, in fact, the ninth hole of the estate's nine-hole golf course.
Under cover of another deep rumble of thunder, punctuated by multiple cracks of lightning as the storm intensified, they moved quickly to the left of the opening in the hedge. Staying close to the dense greenery, Boo Lanson carefully peered around the edge, his view partially obscured by the rain and the darkly overcast sky that made it seem more like twilight than a few minutes after four o'clock on a spring afternoon. He was just about to draw back when there was a sudden boom of thunder followed instantaneously by multiple cracks of lightning. Just as he ducked instinctively, the brief but brilliant flashes of lightning illuminated the ninth hole of Allison Kent's golf course but it wasn't the smooth green expanse that got his attention. Instead, Detective Boo Lanson's gaze was caught by something glinting in the flash from the lightning. Shifting his position so he was facing the hedge, he pressed close to it to remain hidden, staring in the direction where he'd seen the glint.
"What do you see?" Siena whispered, watching her partner's actions that told her there was something or someone within the area protected by the hedge.
Boo opened his mouth to whisper back to his partner when there was another flash of lightning. In that instant, he saw again the glint, light reflecting off something metallic. What snagged and held his attention was the sight of two figures moving through an opening in the opposite side of the hedge and disappearing into the shadows of the trees beyond it. Even through the downpour and gloom though, Boo saw something he recognized. One of the figures –the shorter of the two-- was wearing a blue shirt, a blue shirt whose color reminded him of the shirt worn by the driver of the Sparkle & Shine van. Without turning his head, he hissed tersely, "Call for backup." Before his partner could respond, Boo peered again across the green then slipped through the opening and began following the curve of the hedge around toward the opening through which the two figures had disappeared.
"What?" Siena whispered sharply but the word was spoken to the empty space previously occupied by her partner. She didn't waste another second, turning and hurrying back to their car to do as Boo had ordered. Giving the dispatcher their situation and location, Siena was out of the car and headed after her partner. At the edge of the opening, like Boo had done moments before, she glanced inside. Through the rain, her gaze was caught by something moving across the way from her. Focusing her eyes, she quickly realized that it was her partner she was seeing as he stealthily crept up to the opening in the hedge directly across from where she stood. In the next second, she, too, darted inside, keeping low and close to the hedge, hugging whatever shadowy spots she could as she hurried to her partner's aid.