“We can hang out, take naps, maybe some other activities will occur to us,” he said with an eager smile. She knew what he was thinking and she thought it would be fun later. Although right then she was so relaxed laying down almost sounded good.
“I think I am still worn out from everything this week. Would you mind if I just tipped back on the couch for a while? I will apologize now if I fall asleep this time,” she told him and he laughed.
“No worries, Liz, it was very cute how you were just out and snoring in a minute’s time. Make yourself comfortable, seriously. We will look out for you, so relax,” he said and hugged her. She gave him a kiss and hobbled over to the couch. She sat with a sigh. Maybe it was the big breakfast and then a long bath but a nap did sound good.
“Where is Randy?” She asked with a yawn.
“Getting cleaned up. No worries, remember,” he said and she chuckled, reclining to her back and crossing her hands on her waist.
“Ah this feels good,” she said softly and she did fall asleep again.
Until it felt like the world was shaking and she heard shouting.
Lizzy pushed herself up and froze. There was a big guy with a Kansas accent and a gun kicking the couch to wake her up. Jack was sitting on the arm of a chair nearby with his hands above his head as another guy pointed a gun at him. He had one large foot on the coffee table keeping his leg in a forty-five-degree angle.
“Oh come on! Not again, seriously. This is getting old dude,” Lizzy told him angrily. She was really getting tired of this and as scared as she was she had just about had her limit.
“Shut up, slut. As your parents thought, holing up with some sports star. It is disgraceful. You are going to come with me, and you,” he said pointing at Jack, “are going to be tied up quietly or get shot,” he said and gestured for the other man to approach Jack from the living room entryway. As he approached Jack kicked the table he was resting his foot on and it slid across the room with some force and tripped the man coming at him. At the same time Randy made his appearance.
“Not this time!” Randy yelled as he appeared from the hallway in a running dive. He tackled the big guy threatening Lizzy. They went down behind the other couch, the gun flying through the air. Jack leapt across the room to keep the other guy down.
“If you are a fan, stay quiet and I won’t beat your ass as you deserve,” he shouted at him. Lizzy remembered a thief at the store apologizing to Randy. The guy Jack was kneeling over remained quiet and Lizzy struggled to her feet seeing Randy come up from behind the couch. Then he made a fist and swung it down. Once, twice, and a third time.
“Hold it Randy, I think you got him,” came Katy’s voice from the door. Lizzy spun and almost fell as the woman came in with her gun drawn. She glanced around and then saw Lizzy.
“Aren’t you supposed to stay off your feet for a few days?” Then she moved forward and handcuffed the guy Randy had taken down as another officer filed in and took care of the one Jack got. It took her a moment to figure out what Katy had said to her and she began laughing. She sat down again and took deep breaths to calm down because along with laughing she had begun shaking with reaction to the sudden shock of being woken at gunpoint. Lizzy remained there as the bad guys were ushered out and then Katy sat down across from her. Randy and Jack sat on either side of her.
“I suppose you are wondering why I called you here,” Katy said with a grin. They just nodded.
“First, sorry about being late. I didn’t think they would move that fast. Now then Lizzy, your parents are on their way to the station. They were down stairs waiting for you to be kidnapped. They told me all about it,” she said. Lizzy’s jaw dropped open.
“They were here? How did they know where I was?” She asked with a trembling voice.
“That is what is interesting. I received a call last night from your lawyer. He said he had been trying to call you but was getting a wrong number. I told him you still had the same number and I gave it to him. The one he had programmed into his phone was one digit off. Guess who programs his phone for him,” They thought about it for a second. Randy got there first.
“That Donna chick,” he said and Katy nodded.
“Yes. Apparently she was in constant communication with your folks. After the man they sent followed you to the jewelry store the first time, they did not have to follow you anymore. Donna knew every move you made because you told her or her boss. Her bank account has grown substantially this past week and the phone records all show the numerous calls she made with your mom and dad,” Lizzy was amazed.
“I am shocked they left Kansas,” she said softly, not sure what to make of the new development.
“They told me it had to be done to put you in your place. They are quite proud of their actions and are bragging about it even now I should expect,” she said, her nose wrinkling up in disgust.
“How did you find out they would be here?” Jack asked.
“We got Donna into a room with the man we caught last night and between them they gave it up. That big guy is a factory foreman for your dad’s company and everyone else are local morons looking for a payday. Donna told us the plan as she heard it and we rushed over here right away. They got past security by posing as delivery men. I have a feeling your building security, Jack, is about to be revamped,” she said. She looked at Lizzy carefully.
“Are you going to be alright?” She asked.
Lizzy gave a shaky laugh. “So it is over? I don’t have to worry about it anymore? Do I have to see my parents?” She asked, her only real concern. She had a feeling building within her she was not sure she recognized.
“Not if they keep bragging about their crimes. A judge will take care of them really quick,” Katy said. Lizzy felt a relief and then that elusive feeling she had never had. Freedom.
*****
Lizzy walked back into her apartment from her balcony that faced Central Park. She had made the move right after the last attack from her parents and was very happy in this building. She saw herself in her mirror and wrinkled her nose, then smiled with a shrug at her reflection.
“What are you going to do girl, it’s been fun,” she said to herself. She was wearing two tank tops, a red and a white, tucked into gym shorts showing off her new muffin top and pooch belly. She had spent the last month and a half spending most of her time on her rear after the surgery her knee ended up needing. So consequently, her love of all things pastry had caught up to her. She did not mind though. She had enjoyed it and today was the first day of getting in shape. The guys were coming over to take her to their gym to work out. She spun on her leg happily. She barely had a limp now. Life sure was fine she thought.
Her parents were on their way to jail and none of her dad’s money could save them. It did not help them that they still bragged about their actions as if they were only saviors trying to get their daughter to repent. The judge was not impressed. The dumb-ass thugs they hired went away as well. Lizzy was truly safe and would be for a long time to come.
She had also fallen fairly hard for Randy. She loved Jack but the experience she shared with Randy in the Jewelry store had created a bond neither of them had recognized at first. Now that they had they had talked and decided to give it a try. She did not mind his celebrity status and he did not mind her trust fund baby state of living.
She had managed to finally buy two bracelets from Reginald’s Jewelry. He was doing well and his store was still doing fine. He refused to hire security, not wanting to destroy the atmosphere. She thought it was a good idea. She told everyone she knew with money to shop there because he was a brave man who had stood up for her. People listened and he had got some business from it.
She also had taken the time to attend the meetings at Wonders Woman Shelter. She spoke of her experiences and it seemed to help some. At least she hoped it did. After speaking she would sweep up as promised. She wasn’t sure if that itself didn’t help more people. It was the final actions that helped her get past her own past
and truly embrace her future and she was delighted and in debt to the ladies there.
Lizzy heard a knock at her door and grabbed her gym bag and went to answer it. It was Jack and her man Randy.
“Hi guys, ready to go?” She said with a happy smile. They returned it.
“Damn right, if you are,” Jack said.
“Yeah I was wondering if I could bring along a friend,” she asked.
“Sure, who did you have in mind. Is she cute?” Jack asked and Randy laughed winking at Lizzy.
“Depends on who you ask,” said Kate Linton. She had just walked up behind them with a gym bag over her shoulder. The woman smiled at everyone and eyed Jack critically.
“With a little work you could be cute,” she told him. Randy and Lizzy busted up laughing as Jack humorously protested. Lizzy noticed he was eyeing the detective though. She was a good looking woman and Jack would be in for a time of it if he tried to date her. Lizzy was looking forward to it. She linked arms with Randy and followed the other two down the hallway. Life was good.
THE END
Bonus Story 230 of 40
Darkness Falls
The deep dusky blue of the late autumn sky was filled with bright fluffy clouds moving slowly across the sun. The air was mellowed by the late morning sunshine, which fell copiously on the lawn where Inga Larson lay. Her arms and legs were spread out, and a smile was on her red lips. Her flaxen hair shone and her azure eyes sparkled as she squinted up into the stratosphere. The air was brisk, and she was dressed in a white wool sweater with red designs, and a pair of faded blue jeans. The first frost of the year had already fallen softly on the green places of Uppsala, but the earth and the sun were warm. It was the perfect morning to relax by the canal and sip coffee while she studied for the first exams of the semester.
Inga Larson was a senior in forensic science at the local university. Her cheerful exterior belied the darkness of her chosen field. She was in a sense an all-Swedish girl. She had grown up outside of the town of Mora, on a small farm-cum-bed and breakfast run by her parents, a farmer and an artist. When she was studying in Uppsala she missed those sprawling fields and dark conifer forests of her upbringing. As she lay on the banks of the canal today, she could almost imagine that she was in a field, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, where the only sounds were the fluttering of birds’ wings, and the faint sound of ants making their way across the landscape, and the buzzing of bees. She liked aquavit and lingonberry jam and pancakes. She was the kind of girl who would strip naked and jump into the canal on Midsummer’s Eve regardless of who was watching. Her early rustic life had given her an underlying edginess that her classmates envied, but would never be able to replicate. She was rarely ever afraid.
Now she lay on the banks of the canal in the Uppsala Common, a sprawling park, and read about rates of decay. She preferred the delicacy of blood spatter analysis to the gruesome details of bodily rotting. In any case, she supposed all this would be necessary when she left school for the police force.
A shadow fell across her, and she craned her neck to see two oxford-clad feet. She looked up to see a figure silhouetted in the bright sun.
“Hello beautiful,” came a deep voice out the shadow. It was Kalle, her most-of-the-time boyfriend. He was tall and lean, with ruggedly handsome features and a thick mess of straw-blonde hair. He wasn’t a student, but a bartender at one of the local lounges. He had just gotten out of work when he found her. “I brought you these,” he said, as he set down a bag of pastries next to her and joined her on the grass. She lay her head in his lap comfortably, and he stroked her hair.
“Spoiled girl,” he chided jokingly, opening the bag and pulling off a piece of cinnamon roll, which he placed gently between her lips. She licked his finger suggestively and laughed.
“Delicious,” she murmured. “Have anything else for me?”
“Perhaps…” he said. He smiled down at her, tracing the line of her lip with his thumb. She was perfect, but he knew she wasn’t completely his. At least, he always felt a certain distance between them, like she was never really fully there in the moment. Perhaps it was just that she was a free spirit from the country. He could forgive her because he had never met anyone quite like her.
“Class today?” he asked, stroking her hair with one hand, and pulling out a pack of cigarettes with the other.
“Mmm,” she replied, “Yeah, we have a practical.” She pushed her head into his hip joint, hiding her face in the dark fabric of his jeans. “Mmmgonna come to the bar tonight though,” she mumbled, “Me and Astrid.”
“Okay,” he smiled, “You want to come home with me until your class?”
She nodded, jamming her face deeper into his thigh before reluctantly sitting up and gathering her notes.
The walk to his apartment in the city center was quick. He stripped off his clothes in the entryway, and enticed her to do the same, pulling her sweater over her head and taking her shoes and socks off for her, kissing the tops of her feet. He made love to her against the wall, and then again in the shower. He fell asleep soon after, sprawled spread-eagle in a tangle of dark grey blankets.
Inga brushed the hair from his eyes, her hand lingering in a moment of tenderness on his forehead. She felt something for him, it was true, but when she looked down at him, she saw no future.
She dressed and left the apartment. The sun was already waning, as it did so quickly in the early afternoon these days. Winter was on its way, creeping down from the north, wrapped in the darkness and cold that would soon enshroud the city. As Inga walked along the canal towards the building that her class met in, she thought about Kalle. She loved him, but she couldn’t be in love with him; he met her every expectation, and somehow she found it to be disappointing. He was terrifically and terribly predictable. Or perhaps, she reflected, it was because she had spent her childhood alone or in the company of the bohemian wanderers that would pass through her parents’ farm.
It was this perpetual boredom that had driven Inga to forensics. The boundless brutality of humanity intrigued her. For each reason for a crime there were an infinity of ways to commit it. She liked the company of her classmates. Some of them were fairly typical; hulking men attempting to curry favor with everyone and anyone for the sake of their placement at the Police Academy. But others were true scientists, obsessed with the minutiae of every crime scene.
The class was meeting in the morgue that day. As Inga walked down the stairs, she felt a growing sense of excitement mixed with a tingle of fear. It would only be the second real body she had ever seen.
“Welcome, welcome.” Professor Janson waved a gloved hand, encouraging her to hurry into the room. She was the last one there, and she quickly dressed in a lab coat and gloves. The morgue was lit with bright fluorescent lights that hung low over three metal tables. The white of the walls and the tile floor, combined with the chill that permeated the room from the huge steel mortuary refrigerator on one side, made Inga feel as if she were standing inside of a fridge herself.
“Today we’re examining a unique case,” the Professor intoned, opening one of the vault-like doors of the refrigerator, and drawing out a sheet-covered body onto one of the tables. The students gathered round, some of them with less enthusiasm, but Inga stood right beside the professor, where the head of the body lay. He delicately pulled the sheet off of it. Inga had to stifle a gasp. It was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Coal black hair splayed out around her face like a halo against the sheen of the steel table. Her face was pure porcelain white, a pure presentation of death, and yet there was something lively that lingered around her flawless features. Her eyes were closed, long ebony lashes splayed against the paleness of her cheeks. There was still a hint of ruby on her lips, which had stayed closed, even in death. “Any observations?” the professor asked, looking around the table.
Inga leaned closer, looking intensely at the woman’s face, and then down to the flawless skin of her neck where two ruby puncture wounds se
emed to sit just on the surface of the skin.
“She’s been dead for just under 20 hours,” one of her female classmates guessed.
“Right, and we know this because?”
“Rigor mortis has already worn off,” Inga replied, looking up, “but just barely.”
“Very good. Cause of death?” Professor Janson asked.
Again, Inga jumped at the chance to answer. “Exsanguination…Puncture wound to the neck, and her blood’s been drained.” She felt a chill run up from the base of her spine as she said the words aloud.
The professor nodded, “Which means what…What can you now assume about the perpetrator?”
There was a flurry of murmurs among the assembled students. Some of those who were more interested in the profiling area leaned forward now. “I bet it’s a serial killer,” said a tall, brown-haired wannabe cop, “You know, like a real sicko.”
Professor Janson nodded, “Possible, but as this is the first body that’s turned up like this, what else could it be?”
“Vampire-obsessed goth crime of passion?” suggested another student, stifling laughter.
“Show some respect,” Professor Janson snapped sternly. The morgue fell silent and his words echoed over the assembled students, “Everyone was someone, do you understand? Even Jane Does.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean…” the student cleared his throat, “Anyway, it could be, right?”
“That’s right,” the professor confirmed, “Given the intimacy of the method, we can assume that the killer knew their victim, at least well enough to get close to her.”
Inga’s eyes flitted from the puncture wound back to the woman’s face. There was just something so perfect, so statuesque about her features, that she seemed almost unreal. The last body they had observed had seemed just simply to be dead. But this woman radiated a sense of what Inga could only describe as serenity, like a Grecian statue, or a Renaissance depiction of the Virgin Mary. She involuntarily reached out a hand and touched her neck, just above the puncture marks. The classroom fell silent.
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