He wiped the sweat off his forehead. Some had trickled down his cheek to the cut and the sting was driving him crazy. He dabbed at it with his sleeve and blinked a couple of times, organizing his thoughts.
The phone.
He checked the location. Unchanged. ‘So you are there.’ About a ten minute walk.
His hand still bled. His DNA would be under her nails, but after he dumped her in the ocean no one would find it. He rolled his shoulders. ‘This killing shit is a good workout. I could do an exercise DVD. Burn calories and the annoying people in your life at the same time. It’ll sell like hotcakes.’ He laughed, giddy. Nothing could stop him now.
Perkins wiped sweat off his brow with his handkerchief.
‘I would have bet you were a hanky guy. Stanfield, what’s it like working with a guy who keeps his old snot in his pocket.’
‘Oh, fucking gross. I hadn’t thought of that.’
Perkins pointedly ignored them. ‘We need to eat and get something to drink or we’re going to suffer from heat stroke.’
‘It’s March. The temperature hasn’t hit 80 degrees.’ Sampson pointed ahead. ‘But since you’re old and have a gut to support, let’s let Emily and Henry feed us.’
‘Who?’
Sampson pointed. ‘There. Friends of Ellie. Let’s see what they’ve got to say.’
They parked themselves at one of the outdoor tables and waved at Emily who came out with an order pad.
‘Gents, you find Ellie yet?’
They looked up at her, surprised.
‘Come on, guys. Why else would two Valley cops and a dog patrol guy be down here on the beach? How’s my little Lisa? Can I get her something too?’
‘Emily, you’re too smart for your own good. Nothing for Lisa. She’s on a diet. Special food at home.’
‘So she’s going to go all day without eating?’
Sampson looked down at Lisa who looked up at him, her tail thumping on the floor. ‘Fine. Do you have some lean meat? A couple of pounds.’ He scratched Lisa behind the ears. ‘An extra walk for you today, pooch.’
‘We can do that. What’ll you boys have? Or is the raw lean meat for you?’
‘Chicken Caesar for me and a lemonade. The meat’s for the pooch.’
Perkins and Stanfield ordered and waited for Emily to return inside before they continued talking.
‘Sampson, this is a waste of time. She’s not down here.’ Stanfield nudged Perkins. ‘We head back to Sweeney’s place after lunch.’
Sampson adjusted himself in the chair. ‘Everyone seems to think she’s around here somewhere.’
Perkins cocked an eyebrow. ‘Like everyone was telling us she was in Oxnard before? She certainly has a lot of friends willing to help her.’
‘Weird, right? In this day and age? A celebrity with real friends?’ Sampson shook his head. ‘Says a lot.’
Emily delivered the drinks and promised food shortly.
Perkins sipped at his iced tea and nodded. ‘Yeah. Very peculiar. And more the reason to not believe what anyone is saying.’
‘Well you guys can head back to the banality of the Valley if you want. Lisa and I will stick it out. Right Lisa?’
She woofed and rested her head on her paws.
‘See, even Lisa agrees, and she’s a dog. A pretty smart dog, but still a dog. Smarter than you two boys.’
Stanfield shrugged. ‘What can I say? She’s a smart dog.’
‘Better looking than you, too.’ Perkins laughed. ‘By a long short.’
Emily returned with sandwiches and Sampson’s salad. ‘Boys, your food. Lisa’s meat will be out shortly. Henry is trimming the fat.’
‘And we’re just chewing it.’ Sampson picked up a fork and rested it on the edge of his bowl. ‘Listen, Em, you had Ellie in the back of your place this morning when I dropped by, didn’t you?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh, come on. You were trying to get rid of me like I was an old, fat guy at Club Med. Spill it.’
She chewed the inside of her mouth for a minute. ‘Look, she’s always been good to us. And she’s as down to earth as they come. She may have dropped by, with a friend and I may have given her a bit of something to eat. That’s not a crime.’
‘What friend?’
Emily hesitated.
‘It’s not a crime. Don’t worry about that. Ellie’s in some spot of trouble and we’re here to help her. Was she with a guy, looks like this?’ Sampson showed her the picture of Kent.
‘That asshole? Hell no. He wouldn’t dare come back around here. Henry would cleave his skill like a watermelon. It was an older woman, homeless. I’ve seen her around scavenging for bottles and loose change on the beach. Ellie’s adopted her. Or she’s adopted Ellie. Her name is Ann. They took their food and lit out.’ She crossed her arms. ‘If you guys are really here to help her, then what are you doing sitting on your asses, stuffing your faces?’
Henry brought out a bowl with cut up beef and placed it in front of Lisa. ‘What’s the conversation about?’
‘These guys are supposed to be looking for Ellie. I say they’re a little bit late. She needed their help a couple of days ago.’
Kent checked the map. The dot on his phone indicated he was less than a block away. The only possible candidates were two partially built houses. The dot was located between them. One was still all open frame. He walked through it. It wasn’t this one. There was no place to hide. ‘Like a bloody skeleton.’
He heard a scuffle noise in the other house and smiled. ‘Stupid, stupid bitch.’
Ann regained consciousness and opened her eyes. It was dark and it stunk. She banged against the wall of the dumpster and thought, for a second, she was back in the container.
Her nose throbbed and she had a blinding pain behind her eyes. She struggled to get to her feet and pushed the lid up. ‘Damn it.’ It flipped back against the alley wall with a clang. She grabbed the edge and crawled over garbage until she could lift herself over the lip. She swung her legs to the ground and heard a groan as she landed. She crabbed around to the back, leaning on the dumpster for support. The girl she thought was Ellie held her head, looking up at her.
Ann squatted in front of her. ‘You okay?’
‘Stay the fuck away from me.’
‘Relax, lady who looks like Ellie. I’m her friend.’
Cathy squinted against the pain and looked up and the middle-aged woman. ‘You know Ellie? My name is Cathy. What’s yours?’
‘Ann. The asshole who punched us is going to kill her, then come back here and try and kill us. I suggest we get the hell out of here.’
Cathy pushed herself up and looked around. ‘What asshole? Kent?’
‘If that’s his name. I don’t know. Ellie knows him and she’s setting some kind of a trap for him, but I don’t think she’s going to be successful.’
Cathy held the side of her head and leaned against the alley wall. ‘I’m a bit scattered. Why?’
‘Because you were punched in the head.’
‘No, why is he trying to kill her?’
‘Because he’s bat shit crazy and I think that’s all the reason he needs. Come on. We need to help her.’
Cathy closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose and winced. ‘Good plan. There’s a cop on the beach. He’s a good friend of hers. I’ll go find him. Come with me so you can let him know where she is. You do know where she is. Right?’
Ann shook her head. ‘I’m not going to the police. I’m going to the house she’s in. I do know where it is. Come with me and help her.’
‘I don’t do bat shit crazy well. Tell me where it is and I’ll tell the cops. You shouldn’t go on your own. It’s clearly dangerous.’
‘I’ll do anything for her. You go. I’ll be fine. Tell the policeman friend it’s the unfinished house two blocks west of here.’
Kent stepped in through the front door to the half built house. Ellie was bent over in the corner doing some
thing on the floor. ‘Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?’ He smiled. ‘It’s going to be beautiful.’
Sampson looked at his phone. There was an incoming call from a number he didn’t recognize. He held up his finger to get the other two to be quiet and held the phone to his head. ‘Shush. I can hear Ellie talking.’ He frowned in concentration. ‘Shit. It doesn’t sound good.’
Chapter Thirty-Five
I stood from the phone and turned.
‘Did you hear me?’ Kent smiled. ‘This is going to be beautiful.’
‘You found me.’
He held up his phone, map app open, dot blinking in the middle of the screen. ‘Wasn’t that hard. You do that on purpose or was it a mistake?’ He shuffled a couple of steps closer.
‘I had an idea you were tracking me with my phone. Charlie tipped me off and I closed down the location services. Best way to draw you to me would be to turn them back on.’
‘Draw me to you? What, like some sort of trap or something?’ He laughed. ‘You’ve got balls.’
I tried to stay close to the phone on the floor. ‘You need my email address and password to do that. How did you get them?’
‘You’re not very bright. On your desk on a sticky note.’
I smiled. ‘Oh yeah. The yellow note on the top of my laptop screen.’ That better do it. ‘Why’d you kill Sweeney? I mean, I agree he was a bit of a douche and of all the people in the world, I was the last to mourn him, but why?’
Kent shook his head. ‘Dumb blonde. I’m not going to stand around talking. He fucked up my foot. You knew about it and didn’t say anything to me. Charlie too. When I’m finished making you hurt I’m going to kill you and then I’m going after Charlie.’ He smirked. ‘He’ll never see it coming.’
‘You got it wrong. I didn’t know about your foot until recently. It came out in the trial. The prosecution dug it up but the judge wouldn’t let it be used as evidence, so almost no one knew.’
He shrugged. ‘Don’t believe you. I fucked up Sweeney and now I’m going to fuck up you.’ He took another couple of steps toward me.
I slid to one side, trying to keep a good distance between us. ‘I do have to say I’m impressed though.’
He frowned. ‘About what?’
‘You set me up pretty good. A poorly executed staged suicide followed up with evidence pointing to me. How’d you manage that?’
‘I’ve been around movies forever. Wasn’t hard. Surprised more people don’t do it.’
‘But my gun? When in the hell did you have time to break into my place and take my gun?’
He laughed hard enough snot ran out of his nose. He wiped it on his sleeve. ‘I didn’t break in. You invited me in. You told that putz, Pollak, you had a gun. You even said it was in the set of drawers by your bed. When you and Charlie were on the balcony and I had to use the bathroom I got everything I needed. The bedside table? Really? I was hoping for more of a challenge.’
I had to admit, it was good. ‘That kind of imagination you should be writing screenplays. They’d be better than most of the stuff out there now.’
‘Don’t try and change the fucking subject. My life is fuck because Sweeney broke my foot and you knew about it and didn’t stop him.’
He was literally foaming at the mouth. Spittle built up in the corners of his mouth and he had a feverish gleam in his eyes. ‘You’re not looking well, pal. You need to get yourself checked out. In a psych ward, maybe. I already told you I didn’t know he did it.’
‘And I already told you I don’t believe you.’ He lunged at me and as I tried to side step him I stubbed the side of my foot on a raised floor board, falling hard on my side. He was on top of me like a rat on a cheese wheel, grabbing at my throat.
He had a strong grip. I tried to pry his fingers, even just one, to use as a pain lever. It wasn’t the lack of oxygen in my lungs, it was the reduction of blood to my brain. He had a good clamp on the carotid arteries. I tried to blink away the redness. As I was starting to slip I saw the cut on his cheek and slammed it with the heel of my hand, splitting it open.
He roared and fell back, releasing my neck and grabbing at his face. ‘Bitch. You fucking bitch.’
I could have run. That wasn’t the plan though. He had to go down. I needed to keep him talking and revealing until the cavalry showed up.
‘Hurts, does it? Told you. You need to have it checked out. Looks really infected.’
Blood flowed down his cheek on to his hand. He looked at it and flicked it in my direction. ‘I’m going to keep you alive a bit longer because of that. What doesn’t kill you isn’t going to make you stronger. It’s going to make you long for death. I got some fantastic ideas from our movie. I’m going to slice you from ear to ear.’
My chest heaved, trying to fill my lungs with air and my brain with blood. I clenched my teeth and replied: ‘You’ve got to catch me first, you miserable fuck.’
‘It was a classic, wasn’t it? Such fantastic dialog. And so fitting to right fucking now.’
His back was to the front door and I had my back to the stairway to the unfinished upstairs. I may be blonde, but I’m not that blonde. Running upstairs was not in my plans. He shifted his weight like he was going to run at me when out of nowhere a whirling dervish landed on his back. Ann screamed something horrific, legs wrapped around his torso and both hands full of his hair, twisting his head back and forth.
He staggered sideways under the onslaught, caught off guard and off balance. ‘What the fuck?’ He grabbed her wrists and pulled. He was wide open and if I was a bit more on the ball I would have kicked him in the nuts while he spun, trying to dislodge her. I missed the opportunity. He banged her off the walls a couple of times and finally managed to fling her across the room and into an inside corner. She hit with a sickening crunch and lay still on the floor.
He looked at her while sucking deep breaths. ‘You’re next, pretty. But you won’t be so lucky.’
I rushed to her and dropped to the floor beside her. Her breathing was ragged, but she was breathing. Better than the alternative. She didn’t look too good. And she was in this state because she felt she had to help me. Something she wouldn’t have had to do if this ass-hat hadn’t stuck his nose into my life. I pushed myself to my feet.
He was more concerned with adjusting his shirt. A couple of buttons had been ripped off and it was hanging loose on his body. He looked pretty skinny. Not at all healthy.
‘I can’t believe she did that.’ He spit in her general direction. ‘This’ll be the third time I’ve knocked her out. Maybe she’ll get the fucking hint and stay down this time.’
‘Third?’
‘Yeah, you believe it? I ran into her and this chick who looked kinda-sorta like you on the way here. Dropped them both.’ He pointed at Ann. ‘Dumped her in a, well, dumpster. The other one dropped like a sack of spuds. She’s behind the dumpster. Too big to lift in. I’ll go back for her when I’m finished with you.’ He smiled. ‘Going to be a busy afternoon.’
I had enough of this. ‘The other person is one of my best friends. Cathy. That was the last straw.’
He had the gall to laugh. ‘What are you going to do?’ He slowly advanced on me. His limp was more pronounced than when I first ran into him three days ago. Blood caked on his jaw. His smile added an air of psychosis.
If he thought I was going to run from him, he was mistaken. This is where I wanted him.
I let him advance one more step.
They say everyone has a plan until they’re punched in the nose. I wanted to test that aphorism. He seemed awfully confident. I had about an inch or so reach on him. He wasn’t that tall. An inch or so shorter than me. I had great hand-to-hand training during Blood Thunder. I knew exactly my reach. I spent six months making sure I didn’t hit my fellow actors. Time to switch it up a bit.
I faked with my right and snapped with my left catching him on the end of the snout. His head popped and he staggered backwards.
‘Fuc
k.’ He held his hand in front of his nose. ‘You bitch. That hurt.’
‘I wasn’t kissing, you asshole. I’ve got more.’
He charged at me, trying to catch me off guard. No more.
I met his oncoming rush with a classic side kick, my leg sharply extending my foot into his gut as he ran toward me. Impact velocity was around sixty miles an hour.
I was on one leg, the other one firmly planted in his gut. His momentum both knocked the wind out of him and knocked me on my ass. He continued forward out of control and landed on top of me, gasping for air. He had the presence of mind to grab me around the throat again and at that point I was pretty sure he didn’t have any grand plan to torture me. He was winging it. I stuck my thumb in the cut on his cheek and pushed as hard as I could while I brought my knee up between his legs.
I think the male nervous system has an automatic response to anything heading toward their sack. Even though he was splitting his concentration between trying to choke me and the pain I was inflicting on his cheek he managed to twist enough to one side so I only glanced my knee off one testicle.
It was enough, though. He loosened his grip on my throat. I twisted my arm around and caught him in the jaw with my elbow, rolling with him and kneeling hard on his nuts. I wasn’t heavy enough to hold him down and he pushed me off. I added a couple of extra rolls to keep out of his reach. I scrambled to my feet.
He got up almost as quickly. He coughed and gingerly moved his jaw around. ‘You’re a devious little bitch. I owe you another one.’ He held his hand against his jaw. ‘That hurt.’ Blood flowed freely down his cheek, off the edge of his jaw and on to his shirt and chest. ‘You’ve really given me the shits now.’
‘You’re not getting out of here.’ I was feeling good. He’d tried three times now and didn’t have whatever was needed to finish me off. Time to go on the offensive.
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