Trifecta

by Pam Richter

  "He dragged me around the circle three times, because now I was trembling and crying, but I felt so weak, too, that I didn't protest. The whole situation was so alien. He was forcing me into something I didn't understand. This wasn't a real witch's ceremony, which is supposed to be a joyous celebration, not frightening and intimidating. I had the feeling that I was to be a sacrifice and this was the maleficent black magic Omar had told me about. I was also tired and my mind seemed confused. Sometimes the chanting seemed loud, right in my ears, and sometimes it faded to whispers. The same with the lights in the room. Most times it was dim, but suddenly it would get intensely bright.

  "There was a wooden alter and he stopped me there after we had gone around the circle. He struck a bell that was sitting on the alter with a small mallet eleven times. Then another person entered the circle."

  Vincent looked at Suzanne closely. She had stopped talking. He could see her eyelids twitching, an almost infallible sign that a person was in a deep hypnotic state. She had continued diaphragm breathing, like a person asleep, but her breaths were rapid, almost gasping. Perspiration sprang out on her face and dampened the curls on her forehead. He wondered if it was possible that Omar had implanted actual suggestions that would cause her physical condition to deteriorate if she related this information.

  Even a young person can have a heart attack if frightened badly enough. Vincent cursed himself for not giving suggestions to overcome a physical problem, but he had not believed Omar would be so vile to make such a suggestion. Spies with very sensitive information in WW11 had been given commands to die if they revealed certain government secrets, and they had actually done so. It was like the voodoo curse.

  Vincent decided to intervene since his suggestion that she would not feel any emotions was obviously failing. He had to take her deeper into hypnosis. Inexperienced hypnotists, seeing an anxiety attack like this, took the person out of state. That was exactly the wrong thing to do.

  "Suzanne, you will forget what you were speaking about. We'll come back to it later. I want you to pretend you're in the garden again. In the hammock, swaying in the summer breeze. There is a blue bird flying over the hammock. Do you see it?"

  It took some time. "Yes. I see the blue bird."

  "Fine. Now remember this. Even as you talk to me, all of your body processes will remain calm. Your mind and your body will be totally tranquil. Do you understand."

  Suzanne took a deep breath and she did seem to relax more. "Yes."

  "Your heart will beat as it always does. It will not accelerate. Your breathing will remain calm. All of your organs are perfect and will continue to work perfectly as you speak to me. Do you understand?"

  "Yes." Suzanne's respiration was back to normal and she seemed calm, but Vincent went on with suggestions.

  "As you speak you will forget anything that was unsettling to you, and these things will not affect your body in any way. Your heart, lungs, kidneys and your brain will continue to function perfectly. You are strong and are doing very well. Now, you said another person entered the circle. Start speaking from that time."

  Suzanne took a deep breath, like a sigh. "He was even bigger than Omar, taller and very muscular. I was shocked because he was wearing only an animal skin robe that tied at the neck. As he walked forward into the circle the robe was not closed and I could see enormous genitals each time he took a step. His body was hairy, like some kind of beast. On his head there were attached horns that were curved inward, like those of a bull. He was also masked.

  "This creature, so enormous he didn't even seem human, stood right in front of me. That was when Omar's witches started taking off my clothes. I was crying, too weak to defend myself. They took off my blouse and bra first. Then they unbuttoned my skirt and it fell off. My underpants were pulled down and thrown from the circle. As this was going on, I saw in horror that the man in front of me was achieving a huge erection as he watched. It poked out of the front of the animal skin. It was horrible, disgusting, frightening. I couldn't see the giant's eyes, but his mouth was smiling. He was not chanting with the women and I suddenly knew why. He was a mute. He didn't have a tongue. He was staring avidly. By this time I was petrified with fear.

  "There was a bowl of liquid on the alter and one of the women picked it up. All of the women dipped their hands in the bowl and then started rubbing the liquid over me. It was an oil. They covered every part of me except my hair. The oil was warm and slippery and smelled of herbs and flowers. It was woodsy and nice, but the giant was still staring.

  "All the time the women were covering me with oil, they were chanting in a sing-song way, over and over, the same phrases. Then they ceremoniously unfolded a white cloth that they took off the alter. They laid the cloth on the carpet and made me lie down on it.

  "All the time that I was being covered with the oils, Omar stood off to the side and watched. He was not facing me, and his head was turned partly away, but I could see his eyes riveted to the side, staring. Then he pointed to the giant and pointed down at me, as though giving a command. The giant squatted beside me and took over the oiling of my body, but he concentrated on my erogenous places. I tried to resist, so repulsed by what they were forcing upon me. One of the women kept patting my tears away with a cloth.

  "The giant untied his robe and threw it off, like a matador with a cape, out of the circle. I thought he was masturbating for a minute, until I saw that he was putting on a condom. Then he pulled my legs apart and entered me with his high erection. It was easy because of all the oils. Each time he would push in there would be this enormous loud chant by the onlookers, like they were egging him on. It went on and on. I turned my head away and watched Omar, who stood staring at us in that peculiar sideways manner. He seemed perfectly calm as he watched me cry and be violated.

  "Then the giant was suddenly gone. It was as if time had passed that I had missed somehow. The women were wiping the oils off of me with cloths. I think they used soap, too. I felt cleansed. I was so tired I almost went to sleep right there on the floor.

  "Then Omar was kneeling beside me. He had the sword and he cut a place on my thigh. The sword was very sharp and it really didn't hurt, but it bled a lot. He was holding a tiny white kitten in his other arm. The cat jumped out of his arms and ran right to the wound and started lapping up the blood on my thigh. Then the little cat bit me. That did hurt. It was evidently trying to get more blood. Omar laughed and gave the kitten to one of the women. I think she was bitten too, because she let out a shriek.

  "The giant was again standing outside the circle, handing a box to Omar. He told me, 'You will not remember any of this. You don't want to remember do you? His voice was very calm and comforting and I felt myself falling asleep again, as he said over and over again that I would not remember, but would always do exactly what he said. I was now a witch, bound to him in secrecy. That seemed perfectly agreeable.

  "Then Omar said that if I told anyone, I would die. He said to make sure I told no one, he would have to exact my promise. Then he opened the box and turned it over on top of me.

  "Out sprayed all these insects. Some large and some small, some black and some red. They were crawling all over my stomach and heading down my legs and up my neck. I started screaming. Omar said to promise I would not tell. I was trying to brush the insects off of me, but women were holding my arms and legs. The insects were crawling in my hair and on my face. Finally Omar snapped the top of the box hard, like a command. Then he opened the box and all the insects quickly ran into it. He shut the box, but picked one insect up between his fingers. He was holding it over my face and told me to open my mouth. I refused. I said I would do anything he asked. I was crying. The giant came inside the circle again and he pried my jaws open.

  "Omar held the big black bug over my mouth. It was wiggling between his fingers as he lowered it toward my mouth. I was gagging as I could feel its legs scrabbling over my tongue.

  "Omar told me I was never to tell anyone what happened. If I did I w
ould die. I kept nodding yes, yes yes. Then he started giving me instructions about what I was to do in the future"

  Suzanne was going out of control again. Her heart was palpitating so violently the entire couch was shaking.

  Vincent had never been so angry in his life. He didn't need to hear the actual commands that Omar had given to Suzanne. He had heard enough. It was obvious that Omar knew of his existence and had used Suzanne back at him, to try to hurt and humiliate him.

  He didn't know that bringing her out of hypnosis without understanding the extent of Omar's hold over Suzanne would be the worse mistake he had ever made.

  Suzanne looked refreshed, as though she had been relieved of a great burden when he told her to wake up. But now the burden was his and covered him like leaden armor. He had been deceiving himself. His smart little tricks to lure Omar had precipitated rape and torture.

  That evening, Vincent felt profoundly relieved when he dropped Suzanne off at the Honolulu airport. He stood and watched her plane depart from inside the airport lounge. She would be safely home in a few hours.

  CHAPTER 15

  Michelle took the remote and turned on the television after work on Friday. The week had taken it's toll. She flopped down on the couch and stretched out. The whole wonderful weekend was spread out before her.

  Heroshi's annual party, held at the home of the corporate controller, Henry Chun, was tomorrow night. Everyone from the office would be there. Other than that, she was free. She kicked off her shoes, contemplating the beach for sure and a movie she wanted to see on Sunday.

  Lucifer leaped into her lap. He stretched up, paws on her shoulders and purred in her face. Then he patted her cheek with his paw and licked her chin.

  Michelle would have enjoyed the extravagant affection if she hadn't seen how ferocious the kitten could be. She petted him and wished momentarily he could be hers and always mellow like this. During her childhood she'd always had pets; the menagerie composed of abandoned and hurt animals. Her family tolerated the creatures and almost believed she could heal them. It was practically a family joke. She was constantly coming home with some pathetic creature. There had been a bat and a toad, a snake, a baby piglet for a while, and many wild birds besides the usual dogs, cats and rabbits.

  Lucifer made himself a warm ball under her arm as Michelle dozed off. She was jolted awake when one of the newscasters mentioned the Kavali Building on Kalakaua. Michelle was like a sensitive mother to her enormous steel, glass and concrete children.

  The newscaster said that one of the bank robbers at the Kavali Building had been apprehended because an anonymous bag of money had been sent to the police. The robber tried to pass bills in direct sequence to the ones that had been sent to the police.

  She had helped catch a criminal! Michelle sat up and rubbed her eyes. It was unbelievable. She watched attentively as a young man nervously admitted that he had been given instructions about how to commit the robbery by a large man who could not speak, but gave written directions to two of the employees of the bank, who had actually done the deed. The mute mastermind was described as an imposingly large man, approximately six and a half feet tall. He had a broken nose and was very muscular. An artist's rendering appeared on the television screen.

  It was Samson Stoker. Even with the crude caricature drawing Michelle would have recognized him. Omar's chauffeur.

  The newscaster warned in deadly serious tones that the man might be armed and dangerous. If anyone recognized him they were to call the Central Police Division in the Waikiki area, but not to confront him directly.

  Michelle was still sleepy and stretched out again, muting the television. Nebulous connections were made as she mulled the implications. First, from what she had observed, Samson was not smart enough to masterminded a successful robbery. But Omar was extremely intelligent. Some of the stolen money had landed in her office. So someone had tried to implicate her.

  The Bird of Paradise flower with its ugly inhabitant had come from Omar. In fact, all the disasters to the Heroshi buildings had occurred after Omar had moved here. When Heather fell on the rocks at Hanauma Bay, she said someone who looked like Omar had called out to her, precipitating the accident.

  Omar's cat had attacked Nakamura this afternoon.

  Were these absurd notions, or was there a symmetry to the whole thing? The scariest circumstance was that the reported rapes had begun the day Omar moved to Hawaii, one week ago; the day Heather had first seen Omar move in with one of his 'sisters.'

  Michelle decided she was having paranoid delusions, thinking all the events revolved around her personally. No one could make electrical building systems shut down. No one could move objects in her own locked apartment. As her mind floated toward sleep something in her brain was saying that there was someone who apparently could get into locked apartments.

  All was silent for a while and Michelle's slept deeply for almost an hour. But there were acoustical problems in the building. Sounds were amplified through the heating duct system from the apartments on line directly with her own, from above and below. Michelle awakened briefly when she thought she heard muffled thumps and screaming. Then she was asleep again and her dreams accounted for the noisy disturbance with a series of nightmares.

  Michelle awakened to the phone's shrill ring. The dreams exploded into nothingness except a nasty, depressed ambience in her mind. It was Nakamura calling. He wondered if she could take him to Henry's party the next day. Seems he had received a couple of speeding tickets. He thought that maybe the big limousine was attracting too much police attention.

  "It couldn't be the way you drive?" Michelle asked, trying not to laugh.

  "Tokyo is so crowded, I might have been carried away a couple of times."

  "Um hum."

  "So. How's the little devil, Lucifer?"

  "Right now he's purring and licking my chin. You don't wear aftershave?"

  "No. I hate cologne. Never use it."

  "All I could think of was maybe a particular scented aftershave."

  "How's Heather?"

  "I called her before I left the office. She's fine." Michelle was watching animated TV news pictures without sound as she spoke. She saw what looked like a familiar building, then realized with surprise she was gazing at her own condominium. "Wait! Don't say anything for a minute."

  Michelle hit the sound on the remote control. An excited voice, doing an overlay, was saying, "...on location where the rape and murder took place, right now! The name of the deceased woman is not being revealed, pending notification of relatives."

  "What's wrong?" Nakamura asked.

  "Wait a minute," Michelle said.

  There was someone knocking on her front door.

  Michelle threw the telephone receiver down and ran to the door, suddenly panicked, afraid Heather and been murdered.

  As she ran the knocks turned to pounding.

  She opened the door. Heather, looking scared, had her arm up, poised to pound some more. "I thought it was you! Someone's been murdered in our building."

  "I thought it was you!" Michelle gasped, her heart thumping painfully. She grabbed Heather's arm and pulled her inside. "Let's watch."

  As Heather entered, Lucifer flattened down into a low crouch, beginning an almost inaudible growl. He began crawling toward Heather, belly almost touching the floor. He looked like a lion stealthily hunting his prey. Deadly and intent.

  "Oh, no you don't." Michelle ran to the kitten, picked him up and carried him to the bedroom, depositing him on the bed. She almost wasn't fast enough when she scooted out.

  "Did they say anything else?" Michelle asked Heather as she hurried back to the living room.

  "It happened a few minutes ago. Neighbors heard screams and called security. It's an apartment in the hallway right above us."

  The television screen still showed police activity in front of the building. Michelle went to the balcony, opened the sliding glass door and looked down. She could see six police cars. It was total
ly dark outside now and the red and white flashes of their lights revolved, reflecting on news vans, an ambulance and a crowd of onlookers. As she watched, two policemen carrying a covered stretcher came out from the front of the building and walked with their burden to the waiting ambulance.

  She turned around and saw the same scene on the television. The next scene was an aerial helicopter view of the building. Evidently they were still searching for the murderer from the air. Which meant he had escaped. He could be hiding somewhere in the building, still creeping around the corridors.

  She heard a strange squawking sound and almost jumped. Then she remembered Nakamura. Michelle picked up the receiver and held it away from her ear. He was yelling.

  "Stop yelling," Michelle screamed into the receiver.

  "Ouch. What happened?"

  "Someone was killed in my building. I saw it on TV when you were talking. I was afraid it was Heather, and she came over to see if I was all right."

  "That's not possible."

  "Turn on your television."

  "Just a sec. There."

  "See it?"

  She heard him sigh. "Yeah."

  They all watched in silence for a while, Nakamura in his hotel room, Michelle and Heather together.

  "I have to go," Nakamura finally said. "I'll call you tomorrow. About Henry's party."

  "Okay. Oh. Don't feel personal about Lucifer. He started to attack Heather when she came over."

  "I guess I should feel relief it wasn't something disgusting about me abhorrent to cats, but I don't like that animal in there with you."

  "Lucifer's fine with me," Michelle said. "Don't worry."

  Michelle and Heather took the stairs to the floor above. As they were climbing Michelle wanted to know why Heather though she had been murdered. Heather explained about the newspaper report.

  "That's why you poured coffee on it?"

  "You caught me?"