Arnie was finishing up selling a beat-up old guitar to a guy for his kid. Sammy figured he made more selling the guitar picks and strings. Guess the guy didn’t have high hopes for the kid doing much with it. Arnie threw in a lesson booklet with the pages sticking together. Most likely it and the guitar spent time in the zone when everything in it was underwater. One of her earliest memories was being rescued by a boat. She was with Governess Rachael then. Uncle Danny told her it must've been a levee that broke since the floods came years earlier.
The door closed and Arnie strolled to the other side of the display. “Knives?”
Sammy shrugged. “Just looking.”
“Nobody just looks at knives.”
“Thinking about a psycho with a silver switchblade.”
Arnie studied her. “Not a good combination.”
“Not to mention she’s got something against chairs.”
“Looking for protection?” he asked, rolling open the back of the display.
Sammy showed him a handful of bearings. “A fistful of these to the face saved me a few times.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to have something for close combat.”
Sammy gazed down at the selection. “Couldn’t afford anything more than that potato slicer.” She pointed to a dull-bladed knife at the end.
“That’s the most expensive knife. You’ll need a few more bracelets for that.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Carbon steel blade and maple handle with a custom-stitched leather sheath.”
Sammy examined the knife. “Looks like what a guy with a bucket of potatoes would use. Then after he finished, he’d use the tip to scrape the dirt from under his nails.”
Arnie grinned and fetched the knife at the other end. It had a black handle and a shiny blade. “This is more in your price range.”
“Looks a lot better.”
“Rubber handle, stainless-steel blade, and a nylon sheath. It’ll hurt as much as the expensive knife.”
It was a little long to carry. “How about one of the folding knives?”
“Wouldn’t recommend it, unless you have a lot of experience. It’s a good way to lose a finger.”
“How am I going to carry it?”
Arnie turned over the sheath. It had a loop at the top. “Loop it through a belt, or better yet.” He reached under his shirt and pulled out a knife big enough to cut somebody’s head off.
“Geez, Arnie.”
He slipped the knife back under. “If they don’t see it, they won’t know it’s coming.”
“Looks like you’re ready for war.”
“Can’t be overprepared,” he said, tapping on the gun holstered under his arm. “The gun’s my first choice.”
“Running’s mine.”
“If you can run, you run.”
Sammy nodded. “I got my bearings too.”
Arnie pushed the knife to her.
Sammy slipped the knife in and out of the sheath. It fit into the inside of her jacket pocket. “Is that bracelet going to cover this?”
He shrugged. “It’s close enough.”
“Found that bracelet under a park bench.”
“Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Did a big job and got money coming to me. He doesn’t pay like you, though.”
“Bigger and better things?”
“It’s not better until I get paid.”
“The deeper the water, the bigger the sharks.”
Sammy nodded. “You ever have to deal with psychos?”
“Sure, they’re some of my best customers. Why do you think I’m so well armed?”
Sammy took the knife to put in her pocket.
Arnie grabbed her hand. “Remember if you pull out the knife, you have to be prepared to use it. That means stabbing someone.”
Sammy swallowed. Could she stab somebody?
He let go. “Else you put yourself in more danger.”
“I think I’ll just use it to clean the dirt out of my fingernails.”
“Might be the best use for it.”
Chapter Forty-One
______________________________
Sammy unlocked the door to the apartment building. She picked up the bag of groceries: a can of green beans, a liter of milk, and a piece of meat that looked as if it should be roasted.
She stopped by Igor’s door and thought about knocking to ask if he’d let Tatiana into her apartment. She hadn’t seen Cat when she’d called yesterday. “Cat, you in there?” Sammy asked, leaning into the door. “Meow if you need a rescue. I got milk.” Nothing.
She checked her phone before going upstairs. Still no calls or messages from the psycho. Tatiana finally figured she didn’t want anything to do with her.
The door to her apartment was unlocked. Sammy knew she’d locked it when she left, and Cindy wasn’t due back for hours. Was psycho girl in there? If Igor let her in, he could let her out. She put down the groceries, then stopped. It sounded like Cindy. Sammy cracked open the door. Cindy leaned over the dining room table and put down a plate.
Sammy picked up the groceries. “Home early. What happened? Inspectors closed down the place after finding toupee hair in the pretzels?”
“Sam, you’re just in time.”
“You made dinner too?”
Cindy shook her head. “We got takeout. A really nice place. Look at the bags the food came in. Pretty, aren’t they?”
The bags had handles and the paper was thick with a rainbow or something like that splashed across the front. She could use these for a few bump and grabs. “Johnny gave you a bonus?”
“He let me go early.”
“Why did he do that?”
“I insisted,” Tatiana said, emerging from the kitchen. “I can be very persuasive.”
Sammy stepped back. “What is she doing here?”
“She bought all this stuff,” Cindy said. “Isn’t it great having rich friends?”
“Yeah, great.”
“What part of the bird do you like?” Tatiana asked, pointing a knife at Sammy.
“What?”
“Didn’t you tell her what we’re having, Cin?”
“It’s duck. I forgot how to say it again.”
“Duck a l’orange.”
“Can never remember that.”
“Breast for you, Cin?”
Cindy shrugged. “I guess. I never had it before.”
“How about you, Samantha? What part do you like? Don’t say the neck. That’s my favorite.”
“Is there much meat on the neck?” Cindy asked.
“What there is, is very tender. I love to pick at it.”
Sammy peered into the grocery bag. The meat and the milk had to be refrigerated, but she didn’t feel like going into the kitchen with the psycho wielding a knife.
“I’ll start you with the thigh, and you can work your way up from there.” Tatiana spun around and sauntered into the kitchen.
Cindy approached. “What do you have in the bag?”
“Some groceries. Cindy, listen—”
“Did you get milk? Tatiana asked for milk, and we didn’t have any.”
“Yeah, but—”
Cindy took the bag and rushed back to the kitchen. “We have milk, Tatiana.”
“Almost makes me want to suckle.”
Cindy had the milk out of the bag. “Isn’t she so funny?”
Sammy trudged to the counter. “Yeah, hilarious.”
Tatiana turned back, puckering her lips into a sucking motion, then went back to cutting up the bird.
Cindy examined the roast. “You got a rump?”
“Explains why you’re always going through the back door,” Tatiana said, looking back at Sammy with a smirk.
Sammy looked away.
Cindy picked up the can of green beans. “Do we have a vegetable?”
“We have the haricot vert,” Tatiana said, pointing to one of the steamed plastic containers. “Be a good girl and take it to the table.”
Sammy followed her to the table. “Cindy, she’s not who you think she is. You know that missing chair?”
“Missing a chair?” Tatiana said, holding a platter by the front counter, carelessly waving the knife. “We seem to have a full complement.”
Cindy placed the container on the table. “One of the stuffed chairs is missing.”
Tatiana snaked around the counter. “You have a thief in your midst?”
Cindy nodded. “It has to be somebody we know, Sam.”
“Yeah, it’s somebody we know all right.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“I have my suspicions. Let’s just say it’s more dead than missing.”
“A dead chair?” Cindy asked.
“You could say it died a horrible death.”
Tatiana put the platter down. “That’s what happens when you ignore things.”
Cindy’s forehead creased. “Are we talking about a chair or something else?”
“I’m sure you never ignore things, Cin. Do you?”
“I try not to. Sometimes I forget, like that plant I got from school a few years back. It was all brown by the time I remembered to water it.”
“There you go. If you ignore it, it withers away and dies. Would you be a good girl, Cin, and get the rice pilaf?”
Cindy trotted off to the kitchen.
“Aren’t you glad I came back with the water to feed our withering plant, little bird?”
Sammy checked her for the knife.
Tatiana smiled. “You will be.”
Cindy set a large, steamed-up domed container on the table.
“Sit and I’ll serve the duck,” Tatiana said. “I don’t want anyone grabbing my neck.”
Cindy snickered. “Sounds funny when you say it that way.”
Tatiana held the platter and dragged a few coin-sized pieces onto Sammy’s plate. “Do you want to grab my neck?” she asked, tapping on a small slender piece.
Sammy ignored her.
Cindy sat up in the chair. “Can I grab your neck?”
Tatiana sighed and dropped the neck onto her plate. “Breast for Cindy.” She forked over a large slice onto Cindy’s plate. “There’s a lot of breast here…”
Cindy popped off the dome cover for the rice. “Thanks, that’s good for now.”
Tatiana put down the platter and spooned out a small helping of rice next to that snake thing on her plate. She handed the rice to Sammy.
Cindy offered Tatiana the vegetables. “Oh, I forgot about the milk.”
“I knew I could depend on Cindy to remember the milk. I’ll take a small glass, and bring one for Samantha.”
“You want milk, Sam?”
Sammy shook her head, slipping a piece of the duck into her mouth. She’d enjoy this if the psycho weren’t there.
“And I thought you were a big fan of milk.”
“She never drinks milk,” Cindy said, walking back around the counter.
Tatiana leaned over the table. “If I put Cindy over my lap and tugged at her teats, I’m sure you’d take a glass of that.”
Sammy swallowed. “Leave Cindy alone.”
“Why, Cin and I are just starting to get to know each other.”
“I know what you’re doing.”
“Other than having a nice meal with the girls?”
“You’re trying to get to me through Cindy.”
“I’m trying to get you to soar, little bird. The sooner you realize it, the better.”
“You can forget whatever plans you think you have for me.”
“They’re not mine, they’re yours. I just have to get you to realize that.”
Arguing with the psycho girl was a one-way ticket to the loony bin.
Cindy put the glass in front of Tatiana. “Is that enough?”
“It’s as if you read my mind.”
“That’d be a nightmare,” Sammy said under her breath.
“What was that, Samantha?”
“Nothing.”
“There’s another container on the counter. Do you know what that is?” Cindy asked.
“It’s the sauce. It’s a little too sweet for my tastes, but you’re welcome to use it if you’d like.”
Cindy bolted up from the chair. “Sounds like my kind of sauce.”
Tatiana leaned toward her. “I’m sure her milk is as sweet as nectar. Are you sure you’re not interested in a few tugs?”
Sammy chewed, ignoring her.
“Oh, Cin, can you fetch my purse?”
Cindy held the sauce in one hand and grabbed the purse with the other. It was the same black one that had her phone. “Love the purse.”
“Apparently, Samantha loves it too. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on it.”
“Sam with a purse?”
Sammy shook her head.
“That’s okay. It’s our little secret.” Tatiana pressed down on the purse, showing the outlines of a vibrator.
Cindy stared at the outline. Sammy wanted to scream, “Don’t believe anything this psycho bitch says.”
Tatiana slurped the milk when she wasn’t daintily picking at the neck.
Sammy wanted to turn and run, but it’d leave Cindy alone with the psycho, and she might end up like the chair.
Tatiana knocked over the glass. It was about half-full. “Oh, clumsy me.”
Cindy jumped up to get a towel. Sammy knew Tatiana did it on purpose.
“Let Samantha clean it up. She’s good at spills.”
“I’m sure I can handle a spill,” Cindy said, racing to the kitchen.
Sammy threw her napkin on it before the milk ran over the edge.
Tatiana offered Sammy her napkin. “If you knock the purse onto your lap, I’ll pretend not to notice.” She pressed down again on the purse. “I only used it once. It’ll be our little bond.”
“Don’t want anything from you.”
“It’s not what you say but what you do, little bird.”
Cindy threw the towel over the spill, soaking up the milk. Sammy finished her meal and scooted to the sofa. Cindy and Tatiana cleaned up and talked in the kitchen as if they were best friends.
Tatiana tapped around the counter on her long heels and slipped on the jacket draped over the back of the chair. “I’d love to sit and chat, but I have to pick up Bernardo. We’ll talk soon.”
Sammy rolled her eyes.
Tatiana pulled on her sleeves. “Don’t worry, little bird. You’ll be soaring in no time. I just feel it in my bones. It’s like that sensation of impending rain.”
“More like impending doom.”
“I should be all dolled up the next time I see you. Toodle-oo, Cin.”
Cindy stepped out of the kitchen, drying her hands. “Going?”
“Duty calls. I’ll call you,” she said, turning back toward Sammy. “At least I can expect her to answer.”
“Whatever sick plan you have, it’s not going to work.”
Tatiana pulled on her collar. “It feels like rain, little bird.” She walked out of the apartment with a big, smug grin.
Cindy dashed over to her. “Sam, Tatiana is going to give me two hundred for a full beauty treatment: nails, facial, and hair. If I do a good job, she can recommend me to her friends.”
“You’re not seriously thinking of doing it?”
“Why? You don’t think I can do it?”
“It’s not that.”
“I thought you’d be happy for me.”
“She’s a psycho, Cindy.”
“It could be you just don’t like her like you don’t like Johnny.”
“Never said he was a psycho.”
“You called him a creep.”
“Because he is.”
Cindy gave her that deadpan look. “You find fault with everybody. Nobody’s perfect, not even you, Sam.”
“When it comes to being perfect, I’m on the low end of the scale.”
“What was with the dead chair? You two kept going on like it made sense.”
“I was goin
g to tell you about it until the psycho butted in. Then she twisted everything in her own psycho, voodoo way.”
“You seemed to be following along just fine.”
“You don’t tell a psycho she’s psycho, or she’ll do to you what she did to the… I’ll show you the chair.”
“Thought you didn’t know where it was.”
“Come on. It’s next door.”
Cindy followed her into the hallway. “If you knew where it was, why didn’t you bring it back?”
“You’ll understand once you see it,” Sammy said, checking the door. It wasn’t locked.
Cindy came up behind her. “This place is darker than ours.”
The chair wasn’t there. It’d been right by the door. There was one farther into the room, but it didn’t look like the chair. “It’s not here,” Sammy said, scanning the place for any evidence. “The psycho must’ve come back and taken it. I bet she figured she couldn’t snare you into her web if you saw it.”
“I guess because I’m as dumb as a fly,” Cindy said, turning back and leaving.
Sammy chased after her. “I’m in the web too, Cindy. She’s just using you to get to me.”
Cindy swung open the door to their apartment. “You don’t think I’m smart enough to be friends with her? Is that it?” Cindy ran off to her bedroom.
Sammy walked back to the other apartment, turned off the light, and closed the door. “Yeah, definitely caught in a web by a psycho spider.”
Chapter Forty-Two
______________________________
Sammy turned off the tablet. Third alarm in a row that blew up on her, and they weren’t even complicated. She rolled her head back, staring at the crack that ran along the length of the ceiling. It seemed a little wider than she remembered.
Third night in a row Cindy was out with Tatiana. Tatiana made some deal with Johnny to get Cindy to work the earlier shift. She’d probably threatened to burn Johnny’s toupee with him wearing it.
Tonight, they were at a fancy restaurant. Cindy had told her she was invited. Sammy thought that was the easiest decision she’d ever have to make, but Cindy had to add, “You could see my beauty work on Tatiana if you really cared.”
Sammy told her that she didn’t like that fancy food. If Tatiana wanted to go to the burger joint a few blocks up, Sammy would go. Cindy said she couldn’t ask her to do that.
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