Sleep Tight

by BJ Hyman

  Charlie looked at her finger, went to the sink, and poured a small amount of whiskey on it. Kellie gave her the stink eye. “Don’t go wasting too much of that. I want some more.”

  Charlie refilled her own glass from earlier and poured some into Kellie’s glass on the counter. With a wink, she picked up her glass and walked to the bathroom. She stepped back out to grab her bag and went back in, closing the door and locking it.

  She was pleased to find that the tub was large and deep. She was more of a bath person than Kellie. She took her glass and placed it on the tub surround so that she’d have easy access to it and turned on the water. Once the temperature was to her satisfaction, she put the stopper in to allow the tub to fill. Her bag had been packed by a stranger’s hands, so she wasn’t sure what she would find. She was pleased to find her usual toiletries. They gave her a sense of comfort. She pulled out her toothbrush and toothpaste and turned.

  The officer hadn’t known the difference and had grabbed Sabrina’s toothpaste instead. A new wave of grief flooded her as she stood in front of the sink. The mirror over it was still steamed over from Kellie’s shower. She ran a finger along the edge and watched the beads of condensation roll down. Brushing your teeth is a lifetime habit that you don’t need to watch yourself do, so she left the mirror fogged as she went through the motions with the unfamiliar tasting toothpaste and tears in her eyes.

  Once she was in the tub, she couldn’t feel settled. She took a large gulp of whiskey that burned like acid in her throat. She never was one for straight booze. Mixed drinks were awesome, but straight? No. It served its purpose though and she felt the loosening of her joints and limbs as the whiskey took effect. Feeling vulnerable, she pulled the curtain around the tub until she was in her own oasis. She leaned back and let the water, heat, and whiskey make their magic. For once in a long while, she felt cocooned and, at least, somewhat safe.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Lost

  Charlie woke with a start. She hadn’t really been asleep, but on the edge of snoozing. A sound from the outer room had startled her. Since she was groggy, she couldn’t really say what it was. She listened a moment more but there was only the sound of the television. She settled back down into the warm water. Grabbing her soap and a washcloth, she began to wash the world from her.

  A breeze caught the edge of the curtain and she could see that the door was open a crack. “Kellie? Did you forget something?”

  Shhhhhhh.

  Charlie cocked her head but that was all that happened. The shushing. The door closed again with a quiet click.

  After listening a moment more, she went back to washing.

  Once she had washed, conditioned, and rinsed her hair, she pulled the plug on the tub to release the water. She pulled back the curtain and began to reach for a towel but something about the mirror caught her attention. She stepped from the tub to get a better look. There were words, but she couldn’t make them out from the side. She stepped closer, the water from her body dripping onto the floor making wet stains on the wood.

  DID YOU THINK I COULDN’T GET TO YOU HERE?

  Panic flooded her system and made her already loose muscles feel weak. She thought she would pass out. She reached for the door knob and had a flash memory of turning the lock earlier. The flat head of the lock was turned in such a way to show that it wasn’t locked anymore. She quickly turned it back and stepped onto the rug next to the tub. A viscous red liquid began to slowly ooze under the door.

  She had seen it already once recently. There was not a doubt in her mind that it wasn’t blood. Charlie grabbed her bag from the toilet and stepped back into the wet tub. She fumbled with the sides of the bag as she pulled out clothes and yanked them onto her still damp body. The fabric clung to her, making it difficult to put anything on. She snatched a pair of socks and put them on before she realized her tennis shoes were on the floor next to the bunk bed. She cursed under her breath.

  Once she was as dressed as she could be, she scoured the bathroom for anything that could be used as a weapon. Short of shattering the bathroom mirror and potentially cutting herself in the process, she was out of luck. Her eyes drifted up to the shower curtain and the pole that held it in place. It would have to do. She stepped up onto the tub surround and was relieved to find that it was one of those spring-loaded jobs. She pulled it to one side and it easily came loose. With shaking hands, she pulled half of it out and tried to swing it to test it.

  She squatted in the tub and waited. Her heart pounded in her chest as she thought of what had to have happened in the room just on the other side of the door. She choked down a sob when she thought of Kellie. She knew that, if the police officers were still alive, they fought to protect her…but there was no sound…and then…the blood. She couldn’t keep her eyes from returning to the still moving red river coming from under the door. It had already created quite a puddle. She wanted to shriek Kellie’s name, but she knew it would do no good. The only thing that kept her silent and from running out into the room was the thought that, if the killer still thought that she was unaware, they might try to come back in…and then she’d hit them with everything she had. So now she was going to wait.

  After what seemed like forever, she heard a loud thump. And then another. It was the sound of someone kicking a door in. Her breath came in pants as she tried to manage her rising panic. She heard the front door breaking loose and someone stumbling into the room. She held her breath until she saw stars.

  Silence followed.

  And then…the bathroom door handle began to turn. It halted. Then it shook.

  More silence.

  BANG! The door flew in on its hinges. She closed her eyes and swung the pipe as hard as she could. She made contact and the force of it ran up her arms and made her lose control of the pipe. Her hands faltered, and she dropped it. Charlie opened her eyes to look for her weapon. Eli lay on the floor in the puddled blood with a cut of his own beginning to bleed on the side of his head. He raised a defensive hand helplessly as she moved out of the tub toward him. “Eli? What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

  Realizing that she wasn’t going to hit him again, he struggled to sit up. “Dean called me with the location. He said he didn’t feel good about only two men watching you and Kellie.” He touched the side of his head with a hiss. His fingers came back bloody. “I was supposed to meet him out here. He was going to try to find Detective Brooks to ask him why he didn’t put more men on it.” She helped him to get up and sit on the toilet lid. “When I got here, there was a Hispanic man dead in the front yard. The door was locked, so I kicked it in. Another man is dead just outside of the bathroom.”

  She was afraid to ask but the question burst from her. “What about Kellie?”

  He looked confused. He shook his head. “I didn’t see her.”

  Charlie turned and walked through the blood into the main room. She felt the warm stickiness seeping through the socks. She tried not to notice the man she had been eating dinner with just moments before, but his glassy eyes stared up at her from the floor. He obviously had tried to protect her in the bathroom from his placement. A large gaping wound across his throat matched the one she had seen on Sabrina. One hand still rested on his chest just below the gash from where he had tried to staunch his bleeding. Her emotions threatened to freeze her to the spot. A panic and sorrow began to fill her belly like a quicksand that would suffocate her.

  With a hard swallow, she shut it down.

  She knew she would be worthless to her sister if she allowed it. She had to keep going. She took another step into the main area of the cabin.

  It wasn’t a big room and her eyes scanned it quickly. No evidence of Kellie remained except for her bag under the bunk bed next to Charlie and her tennis shoes still on the floor. They were skewed, as if someone had kicked them around. Eli stepped into the room to find her pulling the bloody socks off and rummaging through Kellie’s bag. “We’ve got to get you somewhere safe.”

&nb
sp; She looked up at him as her hands hit pay dirt. She began yanking the socks on and grabbing her shoes as she talked. “Have you called the police yet?”

  He shook his head. “Once I saw the dead officer outside, I couldn’t think of anything but finding you.”

  She talked while she tied her shoes. “Call them now. She’s got to be with the killer. Or she got away and ran. We need them to send officers out here.”

  “We’re leaving though.” Her angry eyes flew to his face. “Don’t give me that look. You’re who this killer is after and I’ve got to get you somewhere else. What if they’re still here?”

  She knew he was right. It didn’t make her any happier with the state of things. “Call them.”

  ◆◆◆

  After getting off the phone with the police, Eli had gotten Charlie into the car. She was again struck by how the stars and moon shone so brightly out here. It was as if it was just a dark day. In the city, she was blind without a streetlight or something, but here she could see all.

  She had wanted to move Officer Juarez into the house, but Eli reminded her that it was a crime scene. The police would want them to leave everything as it was. She looked out at his face down form in the grass as they left. She wished she could tell him she was sorry and for him to understand. She thought that if she lived through this, she was definitely going to need therapy and then instantly regretted it. What a time to have thoughts like that! She should be thinking of the families that would be mourning and the men who lost their lives protecting her (and hopefully, Kellie).

  They drove in silence with Eli taking cautious glances in her direction now and then. What can possibly be said in moments such as this? There was just nothing.

  When they got to the city, Charlie didn’t even ask where he was taking her and was startled to find them outside of his apartment building. “You can keep me safe here?”

  He looked grim. “I’ve got a gun. I’m not letting anyone in. Don’t get out. I’ll come around.” He locked the doors behind him before he walked around the car and opened her door. She noticed that the skin on the side of his face that she hit was already beginning to bruise. She started to reach for it, but he turned his head from her touch. “I’ll be fine. Let’s just get inside.”

  Once in the building, they rode the elevator to his loft in silence. He absentmindedly ran a hand over her back. It both soothed and rankled. Her nerves were raw. He unlocked his door and let her inside. She turned to watch him lock it behind them before walking into the great open space.

  She was confused to see a step ladder at first, until she saw what was at the top.

  Kellie!

  She was gagged and hanging by a noose from the high metal girder rafters. Her toes barely held her up on the top step of the ladder. She squealed against the rag in her mouth. Tears were running down her face as she struggled to maintain her balance to keep from falling and hanging herself.

  Charlie started to run toward the ladder, but Eli caught her from behind. She struggled in his arms. “You might shake her and get her killed. Don’t rush into this!” She pulled loose enough to slap him in the same place she had struck him earlier. His grasp slacked just enough for her to struggle free. He stood shaking out the stars as she ran to the bottom rung. As she started to climb, it jerked a little to the side and she heard Kellie’s muffled scream from above her. Charlie froze in place. Once the ladder re-stabilized, she carefully let go.

  Stepping back, her horrified eyes drifted back to Eli. With an inhuman shriek, she ran at him. He looked at her in shock before putting his arms up defensively. She hit and scratched at him. “You! You! Get her down! What have you done? What have you done?”

  While he struggled away from her, he kept saying over and over in a stream, “It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it.”

  He held her back for a moment, but her anger and fear were overpowering. She knocked him to the floor and climbed on top, still scratching and hitting furiously. He rolled over on top of her and tried to trap her hands. She brought a knee up and hit him straight in the groin. His face went beet red as he fell off of her. She scrambled toward the sofa. He gathered himself and crawled after her, grabbing her legs. She kicked as hard as she could, and a foot caught him square in the nose. He let her go again. She stumbled toward the coffee table as she felt him grab her around the waist. He flipped her until he was on top of her again. “Charlie, you have to believe me. I would never hurt you.” She reached and grabbed the first thing her fingers could find. It was a heavy marble bird Eli kept on his coffee table. She swung and hit him on the side of the head with it. There was a sickening crack and he looked down at her with surprise before dropping on to her and going still.

  She could see Kellie over his shoulder. She squealed and cried through her gag. Charlie struggled to get out from under Eli. Tears ran down her face as she pushed on his shoulders. The dead weight on her chest made it difficult to breathe. “I’ll get you down, Kellie! I promise!”

  There was a sound at the door and Charlie increased her struggle just as the door opened. Kyle walked into the room. Looking at the scene on the floor, a bark of laughter shot from his lips before he started clapping. “Holy shit! This is better than I expected. You totally killed your boyfriend! Your innocent boyfriend! Poor guy. I’m sure that came as quite a shock to him.” He turned and walked back to lock the door. The click of the bolt sliding into place sent shivers down Charlie’s spine. It occurred to her that a locksmith that installed security systems was a perfect cover for a careful killer and provided essential skills.

  She pulled out from under Eli. She pressed fingers to his neck. There was a pulse. It was weak, but there. She pulled his head into her lap and pressed her shirt against the side of his head to try to stop the bleeding. She could feel a sick movement under the skin that filled her with despair.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Why not? You and your beautiful friends were having so much fun that night. So much fun that you didn’t even notice when you nearly knocked me over. Sure, you excused yourself, but prior to the collision, I was invisible to you. I couldn’t help but listen in to the drunken revelations from Kellie. I’d been looking for a new challenge and you presented me the perfect one: A girl with a charmed life and a sleep disorder, of all things! What an opportunity!”

  Her mind went flying back to the night at the Arctic Circle Bar. The man in the hoodie. The dark figure that she knew was watching her later.

  “All my previous challenges didn’t sleep as deeply as you do. That was so much fun! Anyway, I was still invisible to you the next day. Even after I brought you flowers.” Sarcasm dripped from his lips. “I came into your store and stood right behind you as you worked. Even bought some shit! Imagine how insulting it was when you didn’t know me when I showed up at your door to change your locks later. And before you go thinking that it was just an unlucky twist of fate…that was planned too. I went into Kellie’s salon while she was gone. I told a few scary tales about break ins to her co-workers before leaving a business card on their bulletin board. I made sure I was the only one who does my kind of work so that when that one thought about it, I’d be the obvious choice.” He pointed at Kellie struggling to stay on her toes at the top of the ladder.

  “What about Sabrina?”

  “That’s YOUR fault. She didn’t have to stay the night with you. If she hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have died. I could have made this last a little longer. But, she woke up while I was in the apartment. I had no choice. I was just going to plant the hair and the note. I wanted to up your fear and prolong the fun. But you had to go and ruin that by being such a pussy that you couldn’t stay alone. She got in the way.

  “I just have to say how it never ceases to amaze me when my victims are shocked that it was me! Context. That’s all I can imagine. Like you…you were so wrapped up in your own little life that you didn’t connect it. Club. Shop. Home. Same face, same man, different contexts. You just didn’t
see me. Fascinating how much it took for you to notice another human being who had taken a definite notice of you. You live with blinders on.”

  Eli began to stir in her lap. She had not been aware that he was awake. He looked up at her with a gentleness in his eyes. He started to get up, but she held him down. He grabbed her hand and pulled. She saw that he was holding the marble bird in his other hand. Kyle had turned to look up at Kellie. “I’ve never done two together. That’ll be fun. You get to watch your sister die before I let you bleed out.”

  As he started toward the ladder, Eli pushed up and launched at him with the marble figure. He was off balance from the head injury and his swing was a whiff. Kyle turned around and laughed again. “So, you’re still around.” He ducked as Eli made another swing. He looked over at Charlie as she got off the floor. “You’ve gotten three people killed already with another in the wings. I guess one more won’t hurt.” Eli took another weak swing as Kyle pulled a screwdriver from his tool belt. He allowed Eli’s momentum to lead him right into being speared by the tool. Eli gasped and dropped the bird with a thud. His hands reached for the screwdriver sticking out of his gut before he fell to his knees.