Naked Frame

by Robert Burton Robinson

  Rebecca frowned at Gabby. "What are you doing? He's lying."

  Big Bill said, "Well, if you're not the one who killed Carly, why didn't you call the police when you found her body?"

  "You know why."

  "Oh, you mean because you thought the cops were looking for you in connection with my murder?" He chuckled. "Is that it?"

  "Bastard." Rebecca searched the displays on the wall. "You were watching everything. We're all just little ants to you—living in your personal ant farm."

  Big Bill laughed. "Oh, I like that. That's a good one, Rebecca."

  "You know who really killed her."

  "Yes, I do. It was you."

  "Did you record it? Let's see the video. Show me the video where I killed her."

  Gabby stepped closer to Rebecca. "Look." He handed her his phone.

  Rebecca could not believe her eyes. "Where did this money come from, Gabby?"

  Big Bill interrupted. "It's your payoff, Rebecca. For killing Mrs. Cinaway."

  "And who is supposed to have paid me?"

  "My guess would be Harvey Hamstel. He was worried that Carly would sue the company into bankruptcy over my relationship with her daughter."

  "Relationship? You were raping her."

  "So, apparently Harvey paid you to kill her. And now he's dead."

  "Harvey Hamstel is dead?" said Rebecca. "Oh, and I suppose I killed him too."

  "The police will think so—after they find a little silver charm on the floor of his kitchen, among the broken glass—you know, from a charm bracelet, like the one you're wearing."

  Rebecca held up her left arm, checking each charm on her bracelet. The pistol charm was missing. "You son of a bitch. You took it off while I was passed out."

  "But what I don't understand is why you killed Calvin."

  "I didn't," said Rebecca.

  "No, not you, Rebecca. Gabby killed him."

  "Huh?" said Gabby.

  "Maybe Calvin suspected Rebecca had killed his wife, Carly, so in order to protect Rebecca, you shish kabobbed Calvin with that big screwdriver. It must have taken a lot of rage to jam it all the way through his body."

  "I didn't do that."

  "Tell it to the cops. They received an anonymous tip that Calvin had been murdered."

  "From you, no doubt," said Rebecca.

  "And they found somebody's fingerprints all over the handle of the screwdriver. And I happen to know they're Gabby's."

  Rebecca turned to Gabby. "Did you touch that screwdriver?"

  "No. Of course not." He thought for a moment. "Unless..."

  "What?"

  "Unless that was the screwdriver I accidentally knocked off the workbench this morning. I picked it up and put it back."

  "Crap, Gabby."

  "Crap, indeed," laughed Big Bill. "But that's a great story for the cops. Be sure to practice it, so you'll sound believable."

  Rebecca whipped out her pistol and pointed it at Big Bill. "Laugh at this, you son of a bitch."

  "Take it easy, Rebecca. You should be thanking me for sending the police out to that marina to pick you up before Bobby's guys had a chance to kill you."

  "The cops couldn't find us," said Rebecca.

  "Yeah," said Big Bill, "congratulations. You did a great job of hiding from them. I don't know how you pulled that off."

  "But how did you know Bobby took us to the marina? Did you have a camera on Bobby's van?"

  Big Bill grinned. "No. Just a tracking device—thanks to a loyal employee at Café Nue."

  Rebecca took another quick scan of the wall displays. "So, you saved all the incriminating videos, and deleted the ones that would prove our innocence."

  Big Bill grinned. "We didn't do much deleting. But we did a good bit of editing. Daniel is quite a wiz at it."

  "Any reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your head?"

  "If I really thought you were capable of murder, I wouldn't have let you in here. Oh, and if you're having any crazy thoughts about erasing my little video collection, forget it. All of my videos are automatically backed up to a remote server. Not only that, Daniel is prompted for his password every four hours. And if he doesn't enter it, a prewritten email will be automatically sent to the cops with a password and link to my remote backup database."

  Rebecca studied the display of Kimberly in her bedroom. "So, I guess you know what your lovely young wife has been up to. And Joey Ketrousie."

  "Yes, I do. And they're going to pay dearly for their disloyalty. Believe me."

  Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca saw Daniel moving. He was going for a pistol in the drawer. But she kept her gun pointed at Big Bill.

  Gabby was on top of Daniel immediately. He jammed the electrodes against his neck and pushed the fire button.

  Daniel lost control of his muscles. He dropped the gun, and fell out of his chair.

  Gabby snatched the pistol, and stored it in his waistband.

  "Be careful with that thing," said Rebecca. "And tie him up."

  Gabby looked around for rope.

  "Use one of those cables in that box over there."

  He went to the box and picked out one.

  Daniel was attempting to stand up.

  Gabby zapped him again, and used the cable to tie him up like a rodeo calf.

  "Nice job," said Rebecca. "Now you can tie up Big Butt."

  "You little bitch!" Big Bill stood up, ready to lunge at Rebecca from his platform.

  She cocked her pistol.

  "We've already been through this. You won't shoot me."

  Rebecca fired just about his left shoulder, shattering one of the computer displays on the wall.

  Big Bill sat back down.

  Gabby brought the cables over and tied Big Bill to his chair with several cables.

  Big Bill said, "Now I need to take a piss."

  "Who's stopping you?" said Rebecca.

  Big Bill's face turned bright red with anger.

  "Let's go," said Rebecca.

  Big Bill said, "Are you crazy? In less than four hours the system is going to prompt Daniel for the password. If he doesn't enter that password, all of my videos are going to the cops."

  Rebecca picked up the box of cables. "We'll be back." She and Gabby began to walk down the hallway.

  Big Bill yelled, "What if you don't make it back in time? You're gonna be so dead. Be reasonable. Come back here and untie us. Let's work out a deal."

  Rebecca pushed a release button beside the door and it opened.

  Big Bill screamed, "You're both gonna get the death penalty!"

  Rebecca blocked the door open with the box of cables. They stepped outside.

  As they walked toward Gabby's car, Rebecca said. "You got a handkerchief?"

  "Yeah."

  "Can I borrow it?"

  "Sure." He took it out of his pocket and handed it to her.

  "Now, the gun."

  "Aw, come on, Becca. I need my own gun."

  "Give me the gun."

  Gabby pulled it out of his waistband and gave it to her.

  Rebecca wiped it clean with the handkerchief and threw it into the darkness. "We don't know where that gun's been or who it might have killed."

  "I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for keeping me out of trouble."

  "Oh, yeah. I'm doing a great job of keeping you out of trouble."

  They laughed.

  "Have you got a plan?" said Gabby.

  "I'm working on one."

  "Good. Because I think our time is about to run out."

  CHAPTER 37 - Wednesday, 12:03 a.m.

  Kimberly recognized the ringtone as Wiley's.

  "I told you not to call me again tonight. It's after midnight."

  "I just had to talk to you, Baby."

  "Okay. What is it?"

  "I need you."

  "Wiley."

  "No, really. I want you so bad I ache."

  "Not tonight."

  "Please."

  "All I can do is...you want to play the ga
me?"

  "Come on, Baby."

  "I'm sorry, Wiley. Do you want to play or not?"

  He did not respond.

  "Well, okay. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

  "No. Wait."

  "What?"

  "I want to play."

  "Okay," said Kimberly. "Get loaded."

  "I'm already loaded."

  "You know what I mean."

  "Just a second. I'll be right back."

  Within thirty seconds he was back to the phone.

  "Okay, this time, get ready for a double orgasm."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I'm loading two bullets."

  "Oh, yeah, Baby. That will give me a double orgasm. Do it."

  Kimberly could hear the chamber spinning. The click. "Oh, Baby. I'm already wet."

  "I told it was going to be great."

  She heard him spin the chamber again. And again the hammer hit nothing. "Keep going, Lover. I'm almost there."

  She heard the spin...and a big bang. Then a thud.

  "Wiley? Wiley, are you okay?"

  No answer.

  CHAPTER 38 - Wednesday, 12:07 a.m.

  On their way to the car, Rebecca said, "Did you see Phillipa Thagery on one of those monitors?"

  "Yeah. It looked like she was in her lab."

  "Right. And she had this rat—it was either dead or sedated, because I saw her put this silver, gun-looking thing up to its head and shoot it a couple of times."

  "That could have been the thing that was used on Carly's head," said Gabby. "Maybe Phillipa was the one who killed her."

  "That's what I'm thinking."

  They jumped into Gabby's car. He turned it around and drove down the dirt road toward the highway. "Oh, did you notice that man in the lab with Phillipa?"

  "No."

  "A big black guy came in and started making out with her. He was wearing a uniform. Maybe military."

  "Okay. So, there's another possibility," said Rebecca. "This military guy—whoever he is—might have killed Carly for Phillipa."

  "How are we ever going to figure all this out, Becca? We've got too many might's and maybe's. Just too many questions."

  "Well, we're about to get some answers."

  CHAPTER 39 - Wednesday, 12:19 a.m.

  Gabby drove up to the security gate. "We're here to see Phillipa Thagery."

  The guard leaned out over the half-door. "I'm sorry, but visitors are not allowed after 5:00 p.m."

  Rebecca slid over close to Gabby and looked up at the guard. She saw the name on his badge. "Henry, we're old friends of Phillipa. Couldn't you please make an exception?"

  "No, Ma'am, I'm sorry. It's a very strict rule. I'd lose my job if I let you in."

  "We understand, Henry," said Rebecca. "It's not your fault."

  Gabby was about to back out of the gate and leave when Henry said, "I shouldn't tell you this, but Ms. Thagery usually makes a fast food run at about this time. She'll probably be driving out of here at any minute."

  Rebecca said, "Oh, that's great. Maybe we'll grab a bite with her. Thanks so much, Henry."

  Gabby backed up the car and drove away.

  "Let's park somewhere in the dark. We don't want to spook her. If we're lucky, Henry will forget to tell her about us," said Rebecca. "Oh, and did you notice Henry's uniform?"

  "Yeah. It was like the one Phillipa's friend was wearing."

  "Right. He's not military. He works here as a guard."

  They sat in the car waiting for twenty minutes.

  Gabby said, "Maybe she's not going tonight."

  "There she is."

  They saw Phillipa walking to her car. She got in and drove out the gate. Henry could not have told her anything, since she didn't even slow down.

  Gabby followed her car at a distance. He and Rebecca bet on where she would go. Gabby chose McDonald's. Rebecca went with Wendy's.

  But they were both wrong. Phillipa drove into a ritzy neighborhood.

  She pulled into a gated driveway, rolled down her window, and swiped a key card. The gate opened and she drove in.

  "Well, isn't this interesting?" said Rebecca.

  The name on the gate: Smotherburn.

  CHAPTER 40 - Wednesday, 12:36 a.m.

  "Are you sure you want to climb this fence?" said Gabby.

  "Yes. We've got to see what's going on in there."

  "Here comes a car."

  They snuggled up to the metal fence, hiding in the shadow of a brick column.

  It was a taxi. A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt got out, and the cab drove away. The man took out a key card and swiped it. He walked through the gate and up the driveway toward the front door.

  "Now's our chance," whispered Rebecca.

  She and Gabby slipped in just before the gate closed. They stayed back a few yards, hiding behind a tree.

  The man rang the doorbell and waited.

  He rang it again.

  Finally the door opened. It was Kimberly. "What the hell?"

  "You thought I was dead, didn't you? You hoped I was dead."

  "No. Of course not. I was worried about you."

  "Then why didn't you come over to check on me. Or call the police."

  "Well, I..."

  The man walked into the foyer, and the door closed.

  Rebecca turned to Gabby. "That sounded like Wiley."

  He nodded.

  They ran up to the door and listened, but couldn't hear anything. Rebecca tried the door. It was unlocked. She opened it a couple of inches.

  The distance of their voices convinced Rebecca that Kimberly and Wiley had walked out of the foyer into another room. She pushed the door open further and peeked in. Looking back to Gabby, she whispered, "They won't see us. Come on."

  They slipped inside and closed the door.

  Kimberly and Wiley were in the living room.

  "You keep saying you want me," said Wiley, "but you won't ever let me come over here."

  "What are talking about, Wiley? You were here last night."

  "I was here for five minutes. Once you got the stuff you wanted from me, you pushed me out the door."

  "I had a headache."

  "You know what I think, Kimberly? I think you've got another boyfriend."

  "No, I don't, Honey. I promise you I don't."

  "And now you're afraid, aren't you? Afraid I'll go to the police and tell them how you planned my dad's murder."

  Rebecca shot Gabby a raised eyebrow.

  Kimberly said, "Why would you go to the cops? You're the one who killed him."

  A more distant-sounding female voice said, "Baby, what's taking you so long?" Phillipa stepped into the rear archway, and flinched when she saw Wiley.

  "Phillipa!" said Wiley. "Now I get it. So, you were telling the truth, Kimberly. You don't have another boyfriend. You've got a girlfriend. You slut."

  "Don't be silly. Phillipa and I are just friends."

  "Then why is she wearing a negligee?" said Wiley. "Is this how all your female friends dress when they come over for coffee? Or, only the ones who come after midnight?"

  "Okay. I'm sorry," said Kimberly.

  "You were hoping I'd blow my brains out," said Wiley, "now that you've got everything you wanted from me. You're nothing but a user."

  "I'm sorry you feel that way."

  "She's probably using you too, Phillipa," said Wiley. "What did she talk you into doing? Did you have to kill somebody too?"

  Phillipa said, "Kimberly..."

  "Phillipa, don't listen to him," said Kimberly. "He's just jealous."

  Wiley said, "You turned out to be exactly what I thought you were when my dad married you: a manipulative bitch."

  Rebecca stepped into the doorway and began speaking—which shocked the threesome. "That's exactly what she is. She talked you into killing your father. Then she made a deal to sell Café Nue to Joey Ketrousie in exchange for him having you murdered."

  Wiley stepped back, drop-jawed, shaking his head at Kimberly.

&nb
sp; "So, you'd better be careful, Wiley," said Rebecca. "There's a bullet or a knife out there somewhere with your name on it. And you won't even see it coming. But it's coming."

  "Get out of my house," yelled Kimberly to Rebecca.

  Rebecca ignored her. "And, Phillipa, Kimberly convinced you to murder Carly Cinaway with one of your experimental TENS units, so she couldn't sue the company."

  Phillipa blurted out, "I didn't kill her. Harvey Hamstel did."

  "Shut up, Phillipa," screamed Kimberly.

  Phillipa said, "You talked him into it, didn't you, Kimberly? Harvey didn't think I would ever get it perfected anyway. He told me that. He had no respect for me or my work. So, it was probably easy for you to convince him to steal a unit out of my lab and use it to murder Carly Cinaway. Then you told me what he'd done—like you had nothing to do with it."

  "He was framing you for the murder," said Kimberly. "That's why I told you about it."

  Rebecca said, "Yes, Phillipa, and that's why you talked your lover into killing Harvey."

  Kimberly frowned at Phillipa. "Lover?"

  Rebecca said, "Yeah. He's a guard at Smotherburn Technologies. A big, handsome black guy."

  "Mandibul?" said Kimberly. "You've been humping that big oaf and then coming into my bed?"

  "He didn't kill Harvey," said Phillipa. "He's a damn coward. I had to do it myself."

  "Stop talking, Phillipa," yelled Kimberly.

  "I thought you loved me, Kimberly." Phillipa stormed out through the hallway, back toward the bedroom.

  Kimberly glared at Rebecca. "You don't have proof of anything."

  "No," said Rebecca, "but I have confessions."

  "Confessions?"

  "That's right," said Wiley, as though he had just remembered. "Cameras. Dad had cameras installed all over the house."

  "And guess what, Kimberly?" said Rebecca. "Your husband is not really dead. He and Wiley set you up."

  Kimberly turned pale. "Is this true, Wiley?"

  "Yes, it's true, Bitch."

  "So, he's been watching the whole time? Even the bedroom?"

  Rebecca said, "Especially the bedroom. And now the cops will know what really happened. They'll see how you planned everything."

  "You never really loved me at all!" Phillipa was back in the hallway, pointing a pistol at Kimberly.