I Am the Night

by Rachel E Rice

  “I have to ask my parents first.”

  “You are too old to have to ask your parents. Just text them and say you’ll be staying the night with me. I’ll have my mother call them and tell them you’re with me. No one refuses my mother. She had been trying to get Mr. Nightingale to come to our party for a year. And when she finally talked to him, he said he would be there.”

  “I don’t know. My father can be difficult.”

  “Grow up. What they don’t know won’t hurt them. All you do is go to school. I’ve watched you come to class and go home and do little else. It’s going to be fun take my word for it. When was the last time you had fun?” Hannah glanced at Gabriela thinking about what she should do.

  Turning around when Gabriela heard her name called, she saw Justin and waved at him. He strode over to them. “What are you doing tonight?” Gabriela said to Justin. He looked at a quiet Hannah into her own thoughts.

  “Oh no. Not for me. For Hannah. She wanted to invite you over to a party. Well, the party is at my house.” Hannah glared at Gabriela with wide eyes.

  Hannah wished Gabriela had consulted her before she invited Justin. She likes him. He was good-looking in a cute way with classical features. He was tall and built with muscles in his chest and arms. She liked that he was taller than her and he had a nice body. But she wasn’t hot for him. Not the way she should be. She wanted her temperature to rise when she saw him but it never did. She wanted her heart to beat faster and her face to blush but that never happened either. So she settled for what she felt now—nothing. Only friendship.

  By the look on Justin’s face flashed that he was more than happy to say yes and he did. “What time should I be there?”

  “Come around ten.”

  “But I go to bed at ten,” Hannah said.

  “Not tonight,” Gabriela said. And we have all the pizza we can eat. My mother’s maid is bringing it down from Brooklyn. The best pizza in the world.”

  “That sounds great,” Justin said and kissed Hannah on the cheek before she could move away, and then he waved and trotted out of the building.

  “Looks like Justin has his eyes on you.”

  “I wouldn’t say that and why did you invite him?”

  “It would be awkward with me and my men and you all alone. Although I could loan you

  Chase for the night.”

  “No thank you, and from now on, let me decide who I want to spend my time with.”

  “Don’t get upset. I thought you would like some company. We can watch movies in my movie room and it could be like a date night at the movies. We have some advance copies of Academy Award-nominated movies. But they suck with all the old people. But I have other movies. They’re rated R and then there are the X rated ones.” She raises both eyebrows.

  “The R rated ones will be okay. I have to stop at home first and get something to change into.” Hannah lived on the lower west side in an apartment building. Her parents were teachers who were always one step from poverty and that had her nervous and upset most of the time. It seemed that colored her life.

  Gabriela grabbed Hannah’s hand and pulled her outside. “Look. I have all the clothes you will need. We’re the same size. You are a size six, so don’t worry I have tons of new stuff. When I say everything, I have it all. Being an only child of rich parents, they buy you whatever you want. If you need bras and panties I have boxes of them from Victoria Secret unopened.”

  “Do you want to take the subway?” Hannah asked as she stepped to the sidewalk.

  “Fuck no. I wouldn’t be caught dead on it, but then if I rode it, I could be caught dead. We’re going by taxi. When my mother is out shopping she takes the limo and she adds extra money in my bank account for travel. They offered to buy me a car but I can’t drive.”

  “I can drive and I can’t afford a car.”

  “Good then maybe we can use my mother’s old Porsche to tool around in. She got it for a present for graduation. It’s old but it’s in great shape not too much mileage. She’s been trying to give it to me for years. You can teach me how to drive,” Gabriela said holding on to Hannah’s arm.

  “That could be impossible in Manhattan.”

  “Not to worry. We’ve got a home in the Hamptons. You can come with me for the summer and teach me.”

  “I have to get a job to pay for next year’s tuition.”

  “You’ll pass your classes. You’re smart. Do you think I can pass those classes? My mother and father give a big endowment to the school every year. If I don’t get an A, someone will lose their job.”

  Gabriela raised her hand and a cab stopped. The two girls climbed into the car and the driver took off angling the car uptown to a large concrete and glass building on Park called Billionaire’s Row between fifty-six and fifty-seven street. When they were in front of her building, Gabriela bounded out after paying. Hannah glanced up mystified. How many people live in this building?”

  “Just us. I have the top three floors. And we have a pool. We can go for a swim when the party gets started on the first floor.

  Chapter Seven

  MALLORY MCCLOUD BLOND and attractive who loved to wear the latest fashions and by all measures could have been a model when she was in high school. She made the rounds to modeling agencies bringing her portfolio accompanied by her mother who had spent good money to pay for all the singing and dancing lessons.

  She didn’t want to disappoint her mother so she went along with her mother’s dreams. Her mother had been a stage actress but never quite made it to Hollywood and had dreams of Mallory becoming what she had always dreamed of but couldn’t attain.

  She didn’t have the heart to tell her mother that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and her brothers. So after high school, she went into criminal law and then became a detective.

  She thought she should have gone to be an FBI agent but her father talked her out of it. He wanted her near the family so she stayed at home in New Jersey and commuted to a Manhattan precinct.

  Every day she wondered why she didn’t go into modeling especially when she has to be confronted with pictures of dead girls thrown across her desk. And pictures of some who have been missing for generations.

  “We’ve got another one for you,” Detective Bell said dropping a picture on her desk. One more heinous than before. “We’re never going to catch this scum.”

  “Then what are we doing here? We can’t stop these killings. We just go around and pick up the corpses. Did you get me a name of any recently purchased property in the area? Maybe as far back as a year or two.”

  “There only seem to be one name that comes up and he’s been buying up all the buildings within a square mile radius. And he moved in about a year ago. That’s when the killings began.”

  “Not quite.” Mallory sat at the edge of her desk thumbing through the crime photos. “The killings of the young girls began before he’s alleged to buy property in Manhattan. Maybe we’re looking for two killers.”

  Detective Mallory leaned near her computer and retrieved a picture of the suspect. “Good looking guy isn’t he, and he’s got money to burn,” Detective Bell said looking at her computer monitor. She thought the same but didn’t want to appear unprofessional.

  She hadn’t got to become a detective on her good looks. Blond hair and blue eyes. Legs that went on for days as one detective referred to her as she promptly warned him not to make that remark again or any concerning her.

  Mallory was cold and exact in her work. She didn’t care who she had to arrest she would without hesitation.

  “On my way home, I’ll stop at Mr. Jovani Nightingale’s apartment.”

  “Just be careful.”

  “I can take care of myself.” Mallory placed her black leather jacket over her white shirt and pants and walked out of the station and into her car. She drove through this neighborhood of expensive townhomes and apartments every evening going back and forth over the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey.

&nbs
p; Detective Mallory pulled up to a convenient parking space in the circular driveway and stepped out at the front of the building. The doorman opened the door and she showed him her badge and strode up to the security desk.

  “I would like to see Mr. Nightingale. Tell him Detective Mallory would like to speak to him.”

  “I have to see if he’s in.” The guard a young man on the night shift spoke to someone. He turned and said, “He’s in and he’ll see you now. Just get into the elevator and it will take you up to his residence and the door will open and you’ll be there.”

  The young man watched her as she strode to the elevator. She didn’t have the walk of a beautiful woman who once modeled, but she was all of that and more. She walked in a manner that you knew she meant business even as she placed her hand on her gun as if it was a barbell you find in a gym.

  Before she entered the elevator, she heard the younger guard say to the older more seasoned one sitting next to him, as he tapped his shoulder, and pointed to Mallory, “She’s hot. I could go for her.”

  The older guy looking up from his screen remarked, “She’s a cop for God’s sake. She could arrest you for looking at her too long.”

  Mallory turned and smiled with a mouth full of beautiful white teeth. A present from her mother when she thought Mallory would be a model or actress. That had cost her a pretty penny. Before she stepped into the elevator she gave him a half salute acknowledging that she had heard every word said earlier. Then she entered the elevator and the door closed with her smiling.

  It took only a second for the elevator to zoom up and then open. Stepping into a room of black and white Italian marble floors with expensive furnishing and a grand piano, and expecting to be greeted immediately, she looked around. The floor to ceiling windows provided a great view of the Manhattan skyline.

  A sound came from an intercom, “Please have a seat, Miss McCloud. Would you like a drink or something to eat?”

  “No, thank you. I’m on duty.” That was a lie but she hadn’t taken up the habit of drinking yet. Maybe one day when she couldn’t stand to see any more pictures of dead bodies, then she might have to drink to make it through the day, but today wasn’t that day.

  Mallory glanced around the room with its eclectic furniture. It looked like a collection of antiques and modern furniture. She walked over to paintings on the wall. She leaned forward to see the artist. Once she saw the name, she whispered, “There must be a mistake. These paintings were lost during World War II.

  “Do you enjoy looking at beautiful art, Miss McCloud?” Mallory jumped because she didn’t hear him approaching. And when she turned she turned to see Jovani standing close behind her.

  “It’s Detective McCloud,” she said with authority mixed in her voice with a softness that she didn’t think she possessed anymore. Just gazing at Jovani awakened her female instinct.

  “You haven’t answered my question. Do you enjoy looking at beautiful art?” She smiled because she wanted to say not as much as looking at a beautiful man. But it wouldn’t be professional and she didn’t come here to admire how handsome Jovani looked dressed in his black tux.”

  “I’m sorry to intrude. I see that you’re going out.”

  “Yes, I am. But I will be more than glad to answer your questions.” Jovani extended his hand out pointing in the direction of the sofa. She sat and he sat across from her facing her. “I hope you don’t mind a fire. I’m cold most of the time.”

  “No, not at all, I like a good fire. Do you live here alone?”

  “I have a servant. And a cleaning lady. But then you didn’t come here to ask me about my living arrangements or the number of people I employ.”

  “No, I didn’t. I’m here following a tip. There have been killings in this area of men such as yourself. They are rich and alone. However, they are not as young as you and I suspect that you are never alone.” Mallory smiled thinking that a man like him would have women coming and going. And then she caught herself and sat up straight in the professional manner she had polished for years.

  She straightened up and this time she didn’t smile. She didn’t want to give the wrong impression. She had worked hard not to give the wrong impression, but he was so damned handsome that she didn’t mind him thinking that she was attracted to him. Maybe this one time.

  Jovani’s good looks and charm had clouded many eyes, young and old male and female, and they were never able to see him for what he was, and that was a vampire. But then Mallory never would have thought about him being a vampire because there was no such thing as a vampire.

  “I mean, Mr. Nightingale...” He cut her conversation off because he knew what she meant.

  “Call me Jovani.”

  “That’s an interesting name.”

  “It’s Italian. My family came from Italy.”

  “How perfect. I’m Irish and my family came from Ireland.” Why did she say that? Mallory thought. And why doesn’t he respond to her the way most men do when they first meet her. They usually look at her as if they could undress her. Jovani did not. And she wondered why.

  She had never reacted to a man so casually as if they were out on a date. She stood because he was making her nervous. Just being near him made her feel. Well she didn’t know how it made her feel. It was the way he looked at her. His blue eyes staring at her and she staring back not knowing what to ask him and not remembering that she had a question to ask him.

  “I have to go now. I just wanted to remind you that we have a killer around and for you to take precautions. Get a bodyguard if you have to until we catch him.”

  Jovani stood alongside her. “Do you have a suspect?”

  “No. Not yet. We’re questioning everyone and warning them. You don’t get that many killings in this area, especially the cold bloodied way in which...she stopped and Jovani thought he saw a shiver come over her, “but lately it has spiked. We think it’s a madman by the way he’s been killing and disposing of the victims. He leaves them where they lay. It’s a strange thing.”

  “What’s a strange thing? You said man. It could be a woman.” Both Jovani and Mallory had said too much. He too interested and she opened up to him. But she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw an impeccably dressed man and one too beautiful to be called a human.

  After a pause and silence filling the room, Jovani said, “Do you need a ride?”

  “I have my car.” And Jovani walked her to the elevator and she stepped in. When she turned to face him and get one last look at that beautiful man, he hit a button and it took her down to the first floor. She had forgotten why she had come to the apartment and suddenly she remembered when the fresh air hit her face.

  All Mallory thought about was how attractive Jovani was and how much she enjoyed being near him. Never had she felt that before. That was a first for her and it would not be her last time seeing him even if she had to make up a lie to be in his company.

  Chapter Eight

  GABRIELA’S MOTHER HAD called Hannah’s parents and made arrangement for her to stay for a movie night. Just as Hannah and Gabriela had dressed, Gabriela got a ping on her phone. “It’s the boys,” Gabriela said. “Not yours. He hasn’t arrived yet. I hope he comes before the guest gets here. I don’t want my mother nosing around up here.”

  “How are they going to get in if they don’t come through the front?” Hannah asked.

  “These old buildings have a back entrance. There is a staircase that takes them all around and up to my residence. Like that my mother thinks I’m in the room when I’m not. I can come and go when I want to and she’s none the wiser.”

  “How is it that your parents don’t know about this entrance?”

  “It was my grandmother’s mansion and she showed me all these keen places I could hide and how I could hide my boyfriends from my parents. My grandmother was very progressive. She didn’t believe in a girl being a virgin until she married. She said a woman needed to be in love and have sex and an orgasm wi
th the intended man before she married. Otherwise, a woman could spend her life unfulfilled.”

  “You talk as if sex and love are all there is to life.”

  “My grandmother would say that it is. How else are you to know what men to stay clear of or who to marry? You have to have good sex even if it’s the kind you see in that movie about bondage. There are some strange men out there. A lot of Christian Greys lurking around waiting to tie a woman up, whip her ass and fuck her senseless. I wished I had one but all I get are these boys that I have to teach how to satisfy me.”

  “Why would you want a man like that?”

  “Because being a virgin is stupid in this technology age. No men want virgins. And no woman wants a boy who doesn’t know what his dick and tongue are for.” Hannah sat glued to her seat leaning wide-eyed. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What had she been doing all this time that she didn’t know these things?

  She had your head in a book. Not all life is in a book. At least not the ones she had been reading. She had been reading the Jane Austin books and that was another century. Now, this was the twenty-first century and she had been left behind.

  “You can’t learn about life and sex in your father’s house, Hannah.” She heard Gabriela say interrupting her thoughts.

  “But you live with your parents, Gabriela.”

  “And that’s why I’m getting out. Do you want to come with me?”

  “Where?”

  “I’ve convinced my parents to buy me an apartment with the money my grandmother left me. When I graduate from college, I’ll have access to some of it, but now I need some privacy, where I don’t have to sneak my boys into the house. Not that my parents don’t know what I doing, but I get tired of playing their games like I’m still innocent and a virgin.”

  “I wish I could. But I can’t. I can’t afford to pay rent.”

  “Does it look like I’m asking for rent? I just need your company and I don’t want to be alone with all those murders going on out there. There have been three young women and three older men killed within a month. We are targets for that animal.”