Deadly Dancing

by Nicolette Pierce

  “I thought I was going to have to steer you away from the party,” Brett said.

  “I’m a little partied out.”

  “You don’t have to go with me. You could stay here or with the police on-site.”

  “I want to go.” I was already so far deep into this I’d need a crane to pull me out.

  Brett pulled a limp curl in my hair.

  “When will you leave to take Annie back?”

  “You’re going to miss me, aren’t you?” he teased.

  “No,” I lied. “It’ll be a nice break. Kind of like a vacation from the loony bin.”

  He smiled. “I’m hurt.”

  This could very well be our last night together, forever. I wasn’t sure he would come back once he returned home to Texas. Why would he?

  But he did say he loved me, didn’t he? I tried to replay the scene in my mind, but I couldn’t remember it. It was like it had never happened. Even the parts with Annie swinging at me were clouded and foggy.

  I shook my head to clear it.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

  “I’m going to leave as soon as I’m done at Fenwig’s,” he said. He studied my expression. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to leave this abruptly, but I need to get her back right away.”

  “I understand,” I reassured him. I did understand, but it didn’t answer my lingering question about when, or if, he was going to return. I didn’t ask. I was afraid of the answer.

  Chapter 16

  The police were ready and waiting for our arrival. They wired Brett right away. For me, they brought in a female officer to help. The men were leery about me slapping a lawsuit on them for feeling me up while wiring, especially since my dress left hardly any area for the wire to be strategically placed.

  “Don’t worry,” said the female officer. “I’ve had to do this on myself several times. I found out the hard way what works and what doesn’t.”

  “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

  “It’s all about acting the part. Just take Brett’s lead and follow along.”

  “You’ll come and rescue us though, right?”

  “We’ll come in as soon as we hear anything incriminating.”

  I nodded. The bubbles from the champagne were finding their way to my head. The female officer was starting to blur.

  Brett came over to fetch me. “Ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  We drove the couple of blocks to Fenwig’s house.

  It was an impressive two-story, sprawling white house with four pillars in the front. Spotlights shone on the house to increase the awe factor.

  Brett rang the doorbell while I took a deep breath.

  Karina swung the door wide open. She wore a silk robe loosely tied in the front. I was afraid to know what was underneath. Probably nothing. A sick feeling crawled through me.

  She gave Brett a wolfish smile but froze when she caught a glimpse of me.

  “What’s she doing here? We had a deal.”

  “Consider it two for the price of one. You won’t be sorry.”

  She took in the full length of me. I tried to act nonchalant, like this was a very normal, everyday occurrence.

  “I’m not really into this sort of thing,” she said. “But she can come in. It’s my money, so I call the shots.”

  It worked? Karina was actually going to let me in. She also brought up the money. The police should be able to act on that, right?

  She led the way upstairs.

  “Oh, we’re going upstairs,” I said, hoping it wasn’t too obvious that I was trying to give the police a clue as to where to find us. “What a lovely home you have. This vase in the east wing is gorgeous. Is it an antique?”

  Karina gave me a drab history of it, but I couldn’t pay attention to anything other than my pounding heartbeat.

  Karina led us into a large bedroom. Everything was white—the walls, the carpeting, the furniture, the king-sized bed—it was all white.

  I turned to leave, but Brett held me firmly. “Nothing will happen,” he whispered.

  Think! I scolded myself. “What a lovely bedroom. It’s . . . white . . . and having a southern exposure is probably nice in the mornings.”

  Brett smirked. Karina didn’t say anything.

  She poured some brandy from her cabinet and gave a glass to each of us. I slammed it, setting the empty glass on the white nightstand.

  My eye traveled to the closet door. It was closed. Why is it closed? Fenwig should be in there.

  A bad notion crept into my mind. What if they’re doing this to make us look like fools? It’d ruin any credibility that we have.

  “I bet you have a great walk-in closet,” I said to Karina. “Would you mind if I take a look?”

  “Feel free,” she said. She was too busy circling Brett like a shark to care about me. I slowly opened the closet door. I knew Mayor Fenwig wasn’t in there, but it didn’t stop the image of him jumping out at me like a troll with his camera.

  The closet was enormous. I’d never seen anything like it before. It had to be the size of my bedroom. Expensive built-in wood shelves and cabinets lined the walls. Every nook was filled with designer clothes. A revolving shoe carousel made me shiver with longing. There was even enough room for a chaise lounge, three-way mirror, and a liquor cabinet.

  Karina must love her liquor. I imagine being married to Mayor Fenwig is bound to make a person become an alcoholic.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” I said to the bottle of Jack.

  I grabbed the bottle and ambled out of the closet. I stopped short at the sight of Karina pawing at Brett like a cat. I chugged Jack. He burned on the way down. It was going to take some serious alcohol to get that image out of my head.

  Where the hell are the cops?

  Brett looked at me for any sign of Mayor Fenwig or a camera. I shook my head.

  Karina was becoming more aggressive. She wasn’t going to slow down. I had to find evidence fast.

  “Meow.”

  I stopped in my tracks and turned.

  “I’m a bad kitty,” she mewled.

  My stomach took a belly flop. I couldn’t watch. Jack and I continued exploring. Karina didn’t take any notice of me. Her eyes were glued to Brett’s chest as she unbuttoned his shirt, clawing at him.

  Jack, don’t fail me now, I thought as I chugged more.

  Everything in the room was white. Everything blended together like a stormy blizzard. Cameras, however, are not normally white.

  Jack interfered. He was making me gooey inside. Like a sea of . . . goo, swelling in my stomach.

  Karina ripped Brett’s shirt clean off. He was doing his best to keep her at bay, but she was already going for his pants next.

  I turned to set Jack down to help Brett. I had no idea what I was going to do. Sometimes you can over plan these things. Jack, however, had his own agenda and didn’t quite make it to the table. The bottle fell to the floor. The thick white carpeting broke the fall. It sucked up the liquid faster than a dehydrated camel.

  “When did you last water this thing?” I asked Karina.

  Karina pried her eyes away from Brett long enough to see what I was talking about. Her expression changed to horror when she realized the bottle of Jack was sideways on the floor, spilling its contents into her expensive carpeting. Her eyes bugged.

  “You clumsy bitch!” she screeched.

  Karina snatched the bottle from the floor and slammed it on the table next to a wooden box.

  It was a pretty box, but nothing too special. There had to be some reason it was in this white room, being that it wasn’t white. I contemplated the box while Karina frantically dabbed the carpet with a white towel.

  A circle pattern was carved into the box. One of the circles didn’t quite fit in the pattern. I touched it.

  “Karina?”

  “I’m cleaning up your mess! What do you want?”

  “Why is there a camera in this box? Are you filmi
ng us?”

  Karina stopped dabbing.

  Brett opened the box and we both peered in.

  “Looks like a camera to me,” Brett said.

  I turned to Karina. “Did you kill Jesse Corbin? I heard he was a jerk, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t deserve to die.”

  She started dabbing again. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

  “We have the sex videos,” Brett said. “We already know what you and your husband were up to.”

  “It was all consensual, just like it is with us.”

  “I didn’t consent to being taped and neither did Jesse. I bet he was going to use this to his advantage,” Brett said, slipping the memory card from his pocket.

  Karina chugged down the remaining bit of Jack still in the bottle.

  “He was going to blackmail you, wasn’t he?” Brett asked.

  Karina glared at Brett. “He tried to blackmail us. He was going to take the video and put it on the Internet. It’d have ruined us. My husband was going to fix everything. He said it would go away.”

  “So your husband killed him?” I asked. “Why did he use a sledgehammer? A gun would’ve been easier.”

  Brett looked at Karina. “No, Mayor Fenwig didn’t kill Jesse. She killed him. Didn’t you?”

  She bristled, but a single tear escaped.

  Brett continued, “Jesse was going to ruin you. He was going to make sure you suffered.”

  “You don’t understand. Jesse said he loved me. I believed him. I was going to leave Fenwig for him.” She broke into a sob. “But then he found the camera. He was going to take everything away from us.”

  “So you killed him.”

  “It wasn’t like that.” Karina grabbed at a tissue. Mascara streamed down her face. “I went to Longhorn’s to find him . . . to try to talk to him. He was so angry and unreasonable. He told me he hated me. He said he would make sure that my husband and I ended up in jail.”

  Brett looked at her in silence. She was lost somewhere deep in her mind.

  “I tried to explain,” she said bitterly. “He wouldn’t even listen to me. He kept saying that he already took precautionary measures and gave the video to someone else. He said that he was going to make a lot of money off me. Annie overhead the conversation.” Karina shuddered. “She’s insane. She said she knew of a way that I could get him to stop. She told me about the Sledgehammer Killer and how I could kill Jesse. I wouldn’t even be a suspect. I told her she was out of her mind. I don’t go around killing people.”

  “Why would she care if you were going to be blackmailed?” Brett asked.

  “She doesn’t care about me. She wanted to get rid of Jesse. In exchange for his death, she’d find other willing dancers for me. She said anyone except you.”

  “So you killed him for other men?” I asked.

  “No way! I can find men on my own. I told her that she needed help. There was no way I would ever do it. I was even going to go to the police and report her, but then I thought about what she could tell them too. She knew all of my problems. I was so angry at Jesse, I brought the sledgehammer to scare him. I just wanted him to stop.” Karina looked up with cold eyes. “He didn’t stop. He said I could go to hell. He called me the devil’s bitch and that he was going to enjoy watching me suffer,” Karina said. Her eyes glazed.

  “He shouldn’t have said that to you,” Brett said, stroking Karina’s hair. “It will feel better to let it all out.”

  She clung to Brett, her shoulders drooped. “I swung.”

  “What happened, honey?” Brett asked, soothing.

  “He dropped lifelessly in front of me. I was so scared, I ran.” She sobbed and curled into Brett.

  After a few moments, Brett spoke to Karina. “Why did you involve us?”

  “My husband and I didn’t know what else to do. He thought you might be greedy like Jesse. We hoped we could bribe you to get the videos back, and if that didn’t work, we’d try to blackmail you,” she said. “It turned into a fiasco. We didn’t want to hurt anyone. We were just trying to scare you so you’d give us the videos and leave us alone.”

  The goo bubbled in my stomach. I heave-hoed onto the carpeting where Karina had dabbed out the Jack puddle.

  Brett looked down at my mess. “Nice aim.”

  “You may want to rethink white,” I groaned.

  “I don’t think she’ll have to worry about it,” Brett said. “Not for a while at least.”

  Karina grimaced at the floor but didn’t bother to clean it.

  The police entered the room and placed Karina under arrest. She sat handcuffed on the bed while they read her her rights.

  The police searched for Mayor Fenwig but couldn’t find him.

  After going over a few details with the police, Brett and I walked to the car.

  “You were awesome in there,” Brett said.

  “You can thank Jack.”

  “Did you ever think about becoming a cop?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  He was silent for a couple of minutes until he finally said, “I need to take you home. I have to head out.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Brett, since they didn’t find Mayor Fenwig, do you think they’ll let him off the hook?”

  “I’m sure the police will do a thorough investigation, but the way I see it, Karina will take the fall. Fenwig may get a slap on the wrist, but he can deny almost all of it. He’ll divorce Karina to save public face.”

  “Will he come after me again?”

  “No, there’ll be too much publicity on this case. He’ll want to lie low.”

  Brett pulled into my driveway. It felt good to be home but a little lonely too.

  Brett escorted me to the door and followed me inside.

  “Don’t you have to go?” I asked.

  “Yes, but I’m going to install your washer and dryer first.”

  “You don’t have to. I know it will be a long night for you.”

  “I promised I would install them. It will only take me ten minutes. I can’t leave you here without any clothes.” He smirked. “I already had the pleasure of seeing you in your last outfit. I can’t imagine what you’ll be parading around in next, and I don’t want any other men to see that.”

  “I don’t go parading around,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. I can get someone else to do it.”

  “Don’t argue. Just let me do this.”

  Brett’s phone rang. “It’s T. I’ll take the call downstairs.” He gave me a kiss on the forehead, shutting the basement door behind him.

  A warm draft blew through the living room. I must have left a window open. The front windows were all closed. I looked over to the side living room window. It was wide open. I cursed myself for leaving the window open while having the air-conditioning running. This was going to cost me a fortune.

  I shut the window and dragged myself upstairs. I heard a pounding noise behind me. Brett must have already started working on the washer and dryer.

  I turned the shower on to get the warm water flowing. I then went into my room to strip off my dress and find some pajamas. The door closed behind me.

  “You thought you could get away from me, didn’t you?” a ragged voice snarled.

  I snapped around to see Annie lock the bedroom door from the inside. “Just in case Brett escapes from the basement, he’ll have to knock down two doors to rescue you. By that time, you’ll already be dead.”

  Annie didn’t waste any time. She hauled up her sledgehammer.

  My heart plummeted to my feet. I had barely escaped her last time; how am I going to get her away from the door?

  Annie wildly swung the hammer at me and missed. She was having problems wielding the hammer. There was something wrong.

  “How did you get away from T?” I asked, stepping closer to the bat that was resting against the wall.

  “It was easy,” she bragged. “I tricked him into helping me stand. Poor, helpless Annie with a silly pair of handcuffs,” she scoffed. “I grabbed the stun gun w
hen he bent to lift me. I stunned the big oaf before he knew what happened.”

  Annie’s eyes blackened. She moved to swing at me. I jumped on the bed before the hammer smashed into the dresser. She howled in pain.

  “Just give up. You’re not in any shape to kill me,” I said.

  “Give up?” She cackled. “You’ll never escape the Hammer.” She took another swing.

  I bounded off the bed away from her.

  “Getting tired?” she taunted.

  I was tired the first time.

  Somewhere in the house a gun fired several times. Annie froze momentarily. I made a dash for the bat. She bolted after me.

  I snatched the bat, throwing myself clear of the hammer as she crashed it into the door. Annie unwedged the hammer and turned to strike again. I swung the bat, putting all my weight into it. She buckled to the floor as the bat connected with her stomach. Annie wheezed.

  “Feeling a little winded?” I threw back at her.

  Brett’s hand reached through the hole in the door and unlocked it. He flung it open, aiming his gun at Annie’s head, his finger tight against the trigger. I shivered at his anger.

  “Brett?” I lightly touched his arm.

  His face cleared and he exhaled a long breath. “Cuff her,” he said, tossing me handcuffs.

  I cuffed her. She groaned in pain.

  “How did you get out of your cuffs?” I asked her. “Brett has the keys.”

  “I pried my hands through.” A smile slithered to her face. “I heard the bones snap as they broke.”

  I shuddered. “How could you have possibly picked up the hammer?”

  “The thought of killing you made me enjoy the agony.”

  Brett pulled me away from her. “Go down to the car and get the shackles from the trunk.”

  I grabbed the keys and ran outside. As I gathered the shackles, Mrs. J. called to me from across the road. I waved and she hurried across the street.

  “I heard gunshots.”

  “Everything is okay, Mrs. J.”

  “Who are those for?” Mrs. Janowski pointed to the shackles. “I heard about young people and their kinky sex. Never got into it myself, but I might try. Seems to me like metal shouldn’t be in the bedroom though.”