Audra smiled to herself as she shut the door to her car and gently set the urn down in the passenger seat, then cranked on her car and turned the air on full blast, holding her face in front of the vents. She felt physically drained and mentally exhausted but oddly excited as well. She had so much to think about with all her new responsibilities at the firm, the preparation for Olin’s trial, media relations from the fallout of the Sprigg debacle, what to do with all her hacker equipment at the house, and now the possibility of a budding new relationship; but first things first.
As she drove away from the church and headed out on the small, two-lane highway, she rummaged around and dug her cell phone out of her purse and dialed a number she hadn’t called in years.
“Hi, Mom. Do you have a few minutes? I’d like to come over. I need to talk to you.”
OLIN SAT STONE FACED in his small, isolated cell on the ridiculously uncomfortable cot that some ignoramus decided should be considered a bed, mutely fuming over his current situation. In less than twenty-four hours, he had gone from one thousand thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets to stained, threadbare strips of stinking pseudo-cotton that he was forced to now lie upon in his orange, burlap-sack inspired jumpsuit. He had slept maybe a total of four hours since he had arrived, shackled up like some common criminal, and the lack of slumber was beginning to wreak havoc on his mental state.
Apparently, the remaining hillbilly family members had caused quite a ruckus in the press after his arrest, and some of the more crazed “Deliverance” inspired fuckers had openly threatened to kill him. Olin had been forced into this solitary cell and had been under heavy guard while escorted to and from his bail hearing, wearing a bulletproof vest for protection. Like it would matter what he was wearing when one of them fired off a shotgun in his direction, which was a distinct possibility, according to his attorney.
He couldn’t believe that the dried up corpse of that little blonde bitch had come back to haunt him now almost three and a half decades later! It was just his misfortune that some rogue coyote, wild boar, or even a black bear had not dug her up and used her bones for chew toys. His face screwed into a tight bundle as he mentally kicked himself for not paying more attention to the urban sprawl that Summerset had experienced for the past two years. Had he been more diligent, he might have noticed the spread towards the rural woods that she was hidden in, and could have had time to plan a midnight run with Robert to do some digging. But he had been so entwined with managing the intricate aspects of the now-failed merger, he hadn’t taken the time to keep his veiled closet of secrets swept clean.
He had been locked up for four days in this minuscule eight by eight hell hole since his bail had been denied for being a “flight risk,” and he hadn’t spoken much more than a full sentence to anyone, including his son Ethan on the one occasion that he had come to visit, not because he cared but because Ethan had been sniffing around for money. Unappreciative little bastard, he had stormed out when Olin refused to answer any of his probing questions about titles, bank accounts, credit cards, or trust funds. Ethan was a cloned version of his mother in every way except for the fact that he possessed a larger pair of balls than Jane did when it came to demanding money.
Olin hadn’t said much to his high-powered lawyers either and definitely had not let one word cross his lips to the court-appointed quack psychologist that had come in twice to pick his brain. He hadn’t released one peep from his pursed lips yesterday when his lawyer came in and told him that Robert had been granted bail and was now sitting at home with his wife and kids, contemplating the prosecution’s offer of immunity and probation only in exchange for his testimony against Olin. It wasn’t like it really mattered anyway since Robert had already vomited out the whole debacle in front of a room full of witnesses and cops before he had been read his Miranda rights, which meant that every word that had spewed from his pathetic mouth that day in the conference room was admissible against him, which made Olin’s hatred for Robert even deeper. The only satisfaction that he still held from all of this was that only he knew the truth about what Robert had done that night with Gina, and he wasn’t about to let that wimpy bastard off the hook by relieving his guilt-ridden soul with the knowledge that he had not, in fact, touched her.
Olin looked around his sparse surroundings and knew he was screwed and that this was the view he had to look forward to for a very, very long time. DNA evidence was almost impossible to circumvent, and although he had hired a crack team of ridiculously priced lawyers, being a lawyer himself, he knew his chances of beating this were microscopic at best. He couldn’t shake the immense sense of irony that ran through his head each night as he tried to shut his eyes; the tape he used to seal the evidence of what he did was what finally led to his arrest. A few of his straggled hairs embedded in that country fuck’s duct tape had not sealed anything except his own fate. The only comfort he took from his legal team was the fact that they were costing him quite a substantial fortune, which just meant there would be less money for his two-faced, plastic-covered bitch soon to be ex-wife to spend, or his good-for-nothing but snorting-coke-up-his-nose son, either.
Olin had really struggled to remain silent when his attorney told him yesterday that Jane had filed for divorce already. Ungrateful bitch. He hadn’t even been incarcerated a week and she was already engineering her takeover of his assets. He had worked himself to the bone for years to amass the fortune that he had, and of course, it was never enough to compare to Daddy’s money, so fuck her; she could just go live with the wrinkly old coot because what she was going to find was a tremendous load of debt and very little liquidity. He smiled wryly as he thought about all the millions he had well-hidden all over the world in bank accounts that Jane and his worthless offspring were oblivious to. Good luck finding that money to blow on yourselves while I sit in here and rot.
Today, he had been sitting for hours and just staring at the pale gray walls as his eyes focused past them into the world he had created in his head, since the one he was currently residing in was rather revolting and sure to only get worse. A world that had Robert, Audra, and Gabrielle splayed out on a cold, hard slab as a faceless mortician prepped them for burial, their lifeblood gone, having trickled down the dissection table and flowed into the stainless steel sink as the mortician prepared to fill their empty corpses up with embalming fluid. He just needed to perfect his plans on how to best accomplish that from this fucking cell.
His wicked thoughts were interrupted by heavy footsteps and the loud jingle of keys as one of the tub-of-lard jailors came waddling down the hall toward him. He just stared off into the corner and ignored the sounds, hoping that the rotund version of Barney Fife was heading to one of the other cells, but he stopped in front of Olin’s and said gruffly, “Get up, Kemper, you have a visitor.”
Olin slowly turned his head to look at the round-faced cop that was full of his own perceived authority as he stood there impatiently waiting for Olin to stand up. Olin wanted to clasp his hands around his heavy jowls and crush his windpipe like a twig, but instead he focused his eyes on the cop’s and said, “Who is it?”
“I’m not your appointment secretary, Kemper. Just get up and follow me…now,” Bulging Barney said, his obvious disgust at Olin oozing out of him along with the sweat stains under his ample armpits. “Let’s go!”
Olin let the red that filled his vision pass before he stood up and went to the corner of the cell as Barney unlocked the door and led him out to the prison visiting area. Who was it now? His lawyer had just been here yesterday, so surely it wasn’t him; Ethan wasn’t coming back after discovering that Daddy wasn’t going to just hand him the keys to the family fortune, and Jane would never dream of stepping foot in a place like this even if, at some point in her pathetic existence, she had ever loved him.
Olin was still contemplating the identify of his mystery visitor as Barney shoved him forward to Visitation 2 and said gruffly, “You’ve got ten minutes.” As the door slammed shut behind him, Oli
n sat down and stared at the empty room on the other side of the Plexiglas, wondering if this was some type of jailor humor, since no one was there. The thought flashed through his head that he might have just walked into a trap, wondering if the door would soon burst open and his chest be ripped apart as shotgun pellets tore through his torso while some lunatic redneck relative laughed manically. After all, this was Summerset, and Olin knew that small-town people banded together in times of crisis. Then, just as he was actually starting to sweat a little at that thought, the door opened, and Olin almost fell out of his chair in shock as Piper Rancliff appeared in front of him.
Out of all the people that Olin could possibly ever have envisioned might be coming to see him, Piper ranked up there in the column of never, right along with Audra and Gabrielle. Prior to her nose dive into insanity and subsequent stint in the loony bin, Piper had been one of the most successful female CPA’s in the state, as well as having been the first female equity partner at Winscott & Associates, as well as Olin’s lover for almost two years. Piper, to Olin’s surprise, had pursued him hard and heavy while he still held the title of partner, and being the opportunist that he was, he figured he would jump on the chance to advance his career, even though the thought of screwing her was not a top priority on his to do list. Piper wasn’t exactly unattractive, just not the type that Olin cared to bed, and he had never looked twice in her direction in all the years that they had been at Winscott together. But one night while working late, Piper walked into his office dressed in nothing but a voluptuous fur coat and basically threw herself at him, and much to Olin’s surprise, she turned out to have just as much of a voracious appetite for unencumbered sex as he did, and he had actually enjoyed himself.
As the months of their relationship progressed, Olin had sensed that Piper was falling for him, and he found himself in a difficult situation, to say the least. If he broke the relationship off too quickly, his chances of procuring her vote to thrust him in as managing partner dove down sharply, but if he continued letting Piper believe that he felt something for her, he knew he risked a lot more. Olin had let his quest for power override his judgment and continued to string Piper along up until he became managing partner. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize until it was too late the depth of the psychotic well that Piper’s feelings for him rose from until the day she came and told him that she had initiated divorce proceedings from her husband Nick and insisted that Olin begin the same with Jane. When Olin had laughed at her and told her that there was no future together for them and that she had just been a great romp in the hay, things became extremely difficult at work, ending with her mental breakdown and attempted suicide—in his office, no less—and subsequent admission to Haven Hills.
After her collapse into utter madness, everyone at Winscott had been shocked when her attorney had presented them with documentation that she wished to leave the firm permanently, and a buyout of her contract was completed within days. That had been over five years ago, almost a month prior to the night Audra was inducted as the newest equity partner to replace Piper, and Olin hadn’t thought of Piper since then. He could only assume that she was here, now, to gloat a bit and maybe get a glimpse of him behind bars.
Olin picked up the receiver on his end and motioned for her to do the same. Looking fit and healthier than she ever had before, she smiled sweetly at him as she did.
“I had to see for myself if what the news was reporting was true; the mighty Olin Kemper caged like a wild animal,” she purred into his ear, her throaty breath instantly bringing back images from long ago to Olin’s mind.
“Guess I was right in my assumption that you came to enjoy seeing me get my comeuppance, eh, Piper?”
“Olin, darling, is that any way to talk to me?” Piper said, her hand fluttering dramatically to her now ample bosom. “As soon as I heard, I came here to support you,” she said, leaning in as close as she could to the glass, almost whispering as her eyes took on a distant look. “The doctors told me that I can’t and shouldn’t love you, and that you are like ‘poison’ to me, but what do they know? They can’t feel what I feel nor see what I see. I have always loved you, no matter what atrocious things people may say about you.”
Olin was having difficulty hiding the repulsed look on his face as he leaned in closer and really looked into her eyes. He could see past the creamy brown tint to the utter lunacy that danced darkly behind them. Why in the world this crazed bitch had been released from a straitjacket was beyond him and was just one more reason that Olin refused to speak to the court appointed psychologist because if this maniac was considered ‘sane’ enough to walk the streets again, then he stood no shot. Briefly, he wondered if maybe she had actually escaped rather than being released.
Hesitant as to her true motives for sitting in front of him now, he decided to ask, “Piper, after all these years and the heinous crime I’ve been charged with, you still speak of your love for me? I must say, I’m shocked.”
Piper’s eyes bored into his, almost turning a dark, chocolate brown as she replied, “Oh Olin, you know I don’t listen to what others think! I’ve always followed my own path, and I discovered seven years ago, it leads straight to you. Now that I’m here with you, we can conquer removing this stone that stands between us together and then be able to get on with our lives! I’ve been waiting for weeks to find the best way to come talk to you, but when I saw in the paper this morning that you and Jane are divorcing, I knew that you still felt the same way about me and finally realized that I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.” Piper cooed lovingly into the plain tan receiver at her lips, and then they began to curl back into a snarl as she said, “I also heard about what that Harvard harlot is saying about you and that she’s now running Winscott. Thinking about that scrawny tramp saying such ghastly things about you made me feel vile and brutal and makes me want to do bad things,” she said, rubbing her head with her free hand as her head shook quickly back and forth as though she was trying to sling the vicious thoughts out.
Olin fought hard to keep his jaw from dropping on the floor at her fanatical words. Could it be, just maybe, that the certifiably insane woman in front of him–thankfully on the other side of the thick glass–really did still love him in her sick, twisted way? Was she really fighting off the images in her head of exacting violence on Audra?
As these thoughts raced through his brain, Olin decided that the only way to be sure that his salvation had just come to see him, cloaked behind the guise of this bizarre broad, was to see her reaction to his proposed plan that was beginning to take shape in his own twisted mind.
“Piper, it’s not just Audra’s fault that I’m in here. She convinced my secretary, Gabrielle, as well as our former partner, Robert, to turn against me, spewing malicious fallacies about me to the police and to the press. Those three have ruined my entire life, taken away everything that I worked so hard for and made it impossible for you and I to be together, save for visits like this.” As he spoke, her brown eyes grew huge as tears began to flow down her cheeks. He lifted his hand up and placed it longingly on the glass, as did Piper, and said quietly, “I wish it wasn’t so because I’ve missed you so much. If only there was some way to turn back the clock and make them go away.”
Piper’s tears were racing freely now as Olin’s words flowed like the drug that they were to her through her veins, her head swimming in the rush of him. She had endured so much pain and torture during her five year stay at the hands of the detestable doctors at Haven Hills as they had tried to convince her that Olin didn’t love her, and in the end, she had finally agreed with them just so she could leave. All the while though, she knew, in the deepest recesses of her soul, that Olin really did love her, and seeing him again and hearing those words made all the pain and suffering that she had endured melt away with each tear she shed. She smiled through her tears at the love of her life and said, “Time I can’t traverse, my darling, but I can make them go away if that will help you get out of here sooner
so we can start our life together.”
And with that, Olin smiled.
“JURY SELECTION FOR THE trial of Olin Kemper, former managing partner of the Phoenix based accounting firm, Winscott & Associates, is scheduled to begin Monday at the Yarkema County Courthouse. Mr. Kemper is accused of the murder of Gina Milligan 33 years ago in Summerset. His arrest last year for this local, legendary case has catapulted Summerset into the national spotlight, filling the hotels and restaurants located in and around this tiny berg to well beyond their capacity, as news crews from all over the United States have descended upon this normally quiet town like a horde of hungry locusts. Roger Clanton and Nicolas Rancliff, lead attorneys of Mr. Kemper’s dream team of lawyers hailing from Scottsdale, refused to answer reporters’ questions moments ago as they entered the courthouse, but inside sources told us that Mr. Clanton and Mr. Rancliff filed a change of venue request due to the notoriety of this case and their concerns about obtaining a fair and impartial jury from the pool of local citizens.
National legal analysts are divided on their opinions as to whether or not Judge Marshall Hall will grant a change of venue, as well as the odds on Mr. Kemper taking the stand in his own defense. Key prosecution witness, Mr. Robert Folton, who was originally charged as an accomplice with Mr. Kemper, already pled guilty and, in exchange for his testimony against Mr. Kemper, was given five years’ probation for his part in the case.
The debates on these issues, along with Mr. Kemper’s guilt or innocence, are just as heated between lifelong residents of this close knit community, which has caused an invisible line of stark contrasts separating longtime friends and close family members on each side.
Stay tuned for our continuing, live coverage of this trial, beginning Monday at 8:00 A.M. This is Jan Patakee reporting for Channel Six News.”
Eviscerating the Snake - The Complete Trilogy Page 15