Satan's Breath

by Temple Madison

  Burt Partridge stood at the window. “Here she is now, gentlemen,” he said, and then looked back at them with a smile on his face, “and does she look fine.”

  The mayor motioned for him to sit down. “For God’s sake, Burt, keep your hormones in check. We’re here on business.”

  “You’re here on business,” Burt said, “I’m here to check out the famous Queen of Steam.”

  A few minutes of deep-throated laughter traveled around the table until everyone gradually quieted down to complete silence. Each pair of eyes looked expectantly toward the double doors as if waiting for a floor show to begin.

  At long last only one of the doors opened, and the mayor’s secretary stepped in. “She’s here. Are you ready, Mayor?”

  “Thelma, we’ve been ready. Will you bring her in?”

  She nodded. Lacking only a microphone, a rambling stage, gold curtains, and a spotlight, the woman gave an expert impression of an announcer out of Vegas. “Gentlemen, may I present to you Ms. Blaze Alexander, Savannah’s own Queen of Steam.”

  Just then, the doors swooshed open and when the secretary stepped aside, she seemed to magically appear. The men’s eyes widened as the notorious beauty stood there, big as life, her loveliness capable of hurting their eyes. Her wild, red hair framed her face and she rested a hand on her hip as if she were about to draw a gun. She stood casually on one shapely leg, the other slightly bent as her gaze cut around to each man, and then broke the silence.

  “Hello, boys,” she purred, just barely imitating her radio voice. She swayed toward them as if she’d invented it, perfected it, and copyrighted it. While she walked, she noticed how they all followed her with their gazes, turning in their chairs. “I understand you want to see lil’ ol’ me,” she continued, her deep drawl apparent. When she got to the empty chair, she looked down at it and said, “I’m assumin’ this one is for me?”

  The men bobbed their heads senselessly while several of them jumped up and fought over who would pull the chair out for her.

  She leaned forward slightly, exposing her cleavage, and then slid into the chair easily. Thanking them, she took out a cigarette and smiled when she saw at least ten flames flickering in front of her face. She chose the one nearest to her, and while she touched her cigarette to it, she noticed how the men looked hungrily at her pouting mouth as it left the imprint of her lipstick on the tip.

  Lifting her face to blow the smoke away from the crowd of faces, she thanked the lucky, red-faced man from whom she had accepted the light. As the men reluctantly returned to their chairs, she moved her gaze slowly across the room, waiting for the meeting to begin. When she saw nothing but stares, she smiled and asked, “Well, when does this little hanging party start?”

  “Ms. Alexander, I’m Mayor Simon Parker. I’m sure you’re wonderin’ just why we’ve called you here.”

  “Well,” Blaze began, and smiled at the faces still turned toward her. “The thought had crossed my mind.”

  There was a soft rumble of laughter.

  Hesitating to begin, the troubled mayor looked down at the document he had lying in front of him. “Ms. Alexander, I have a document here that forces my hand in this matter.”

  “Mayor, if you don’t mind, what matter is that?”

  The mayor looked at her with dread, and spoke softly. “Your exile from the City of Savannah.”

  Blaze’s eyes widened and she lunged forward, sitting straight up in her chair. “My what?” Her hand quickly came down and pressed out her cigarette in the little metal ashtray. It clanked loudly against the table as she pounded her cigarette into it, spilling ashes on the table.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Alexander, but I have just over a thousand signatures on this petition, demanding your exile from our fair city.”

  “You’re throwing me out? But why?”

  “It’s the opinion of these people that you’re a bad influence on the youth of Savannah.”

  Anger rising inside her, Blaze rose from her chair and began a determined stride around the room toward the black man at the head of the table. “Now let me get this straight. You went out and got—”

  “No, I didn’t, Ms. Alexander.”

  “Then who?”

  The mayor stretched out his hand toward Calvin Little.

  She followed the mayor’s hand, and saw the guilty face of Calvin trying to push himself down and disappear into his chair.

  “Calvin doesn’t usually meet with us,” the mayor said, “but I invited him today since I knew the topic would be of special interest to him. He didn’t know you were going to be here, of course. I saved that as a surprise.” The mayor looked at Calvin with a smirk. “Surprise, Calvin.”

  Anger gnawed at Blaze as she stabbed him with her gaze. “You mean that little creep did this to me?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  She seethed with mounting rage, wanting nothing more than to kill the bastard, but forced her anger down, knowing murder, even the bloody kind, was too good for this snake. It might hurt for a while, but then the pain would be gone, and Blaze wanted him to suffer. So, smiling like a friendly rattler, she slowly walked over to him. There was some space between Calvin’s chair and the next one, so Blaze perched herself up on the table and crossed her sexy legs. “Hello, Calvin. Remember me?”

  Calvin looked up at her, and then down at her legs.

  “So you think I’m dangerous, right, Calvin?”

  “Well, y…”

  She stroked his cheek. “Tell me, Calvin. What’s so dangerous about a lil’ ol’ redhead from L.A.? Huh?”

  The rest of the council looked on, amused at Calvin’s apparent discomfort.

  The secretary looked in just then. “Mayor, you have a c…”

  The mayor half rose in his chair. “No damned calls!” he yelled, and then quickly looked back over at Calvin to see what he would do.

  The secretary saw Blaze hovering in Calvin Little’s face, and reluctantly backed out, pulling the door with her until it closed with a soft click.

  Speaking loudly so the whole council could hear, Blaze asked, “Calvin darlin’, could this have anything to do with the night you approached me with a,” her expressive gaze slid around the room, “proposition?” She saw the rest of the men hanging onto her every word. “You remember, the one that I turned down flat?”

  Calvin tried to rise, “That’s a downri—”

  Blaze pushed him back down in his chair. “Sit down, Calvin.” She scooted herself in front of him and boldly lifted one long leg over his head until it was dangling off the other side of the table.

  Calvin’s eyes got as big as saucers when he found himself between the legs of the Queen of Steam, Blaze Alexander, a place he’d wanted to be for a long time. He couldn’t keep his eyes away from the inside of her thighs, and had almost made it to the shadow inside her skirt when Blaze lifted his face with her hand.

  “Pay attention, Calvin.”

  He shifted his eyes up at her, wishing he could shrink into nothingness.

  “Now, Calvin. I want you to tell this council the truth about what happened that night.”

  Calvin’s beady-eyed gaze shifted toward the mayor for help. “Mayor…”

  “Go ahead, Calvin, speak.”

  “You sound like you’re talkin’ to a damned dog!”

  “Of course not, Calvin,” the mayor responded, “only a horse’s ass! Now talk!”

  “You bla…”

  “What was that, Calvin?” the mayor said, the tone of his voice deadly, and his face a glowering mask of rage. “What was that you were about to say?”

  “No…Nothing,” Calvin stammered, and then nervously looked around at the others for just one sympathetic face that might come to his defense. He saw none, and the city manager knew he was in the hot seat all by himself. “Well,” Calvin finally began, the sweat slowly rolling down his forehead, “it was nothin’ much. I just happened to be passin’ the station where Ms. Alexander works, and noticin’ the time, I knew she was w
inding up her program, so I pulled up in the parking lot and waited for her.”

  “You just happened to be passin’ by?” the mayor repeated.

  “Yes, as I said…”

  The mayor’s dark eyes looked over Blaze. “Ms. Alexander, what time does your program end?”

  “Four o’clock in the a.m.,” Blaze said while sliding her gaze back down to Calvin.”

  The mayor’s gaze again anchored on Calvin. “And Calvin, you just happened to be passin’ by at…what was that…four in the a.m.? Is that right?”

  “Well, somethin’ like that.” When Calvin looked around and saw everyone’s eyes on him, he felt like a bug under a microscope. “When I saw Ms. Alexander comin’ out of the buildin’, I approached her with my usual gentlemanly southern charm—”

  A few snickers were heard among several throats being cleared.

  “—and grace.”

  Several men couldn’t keep it in and laughed out loud.

  Calvin looked around frowning angrily, and then deciding to get it over with once and for all, his words began to gush. “I introduced myself, and just asked Ms. Alexander if I could call on her some evenin’, so we could get to be, ah, friends.”

  “Funny,” Blaze said. “I don’t remember it that way.”

  “Ms. Alexander,” the mayor said, “if this is embarrassing to you, we don’t need to hear anymore.”

  “Oh, no, mayor,” Blaze objected while narrowing her eyes on the squirming city manager, “I’m not going to be cheated out of this. You’re going to hear all of it.” Keeping her eyes on Calvin, she began, “It’s true, he did want to become friends, but not in the usual way. In order to entice me, he offered to keep me, and supply me with all the dope I wanted. When I refused, he pinned me against my car and tried to rape me.” She paused, lowering her smirking gaze toward him.

  “Didn’t you, Calvin?” she said in a sweet, syrupy voice. Seeing him tugging at his collar nervously, she continued, “Then he began telling me a few things, like…let’s see, now.” She slid her eyes back down at him and narrowed them. “Oh yes,” Blaze said, her gaze stabbing into him, daring him to deny anything she said. “He said that maybe I was savin’ it for the mayor’s big black dick, and that he, uh, Calvin, that is, could stay hard longer than—”

  “You damned bitch!” Calvin yelled. “Nothing like that happened.” He looked over at the mayor. “You’re going to take the word of this filthy little slut over mine?”

  “Watch your mouth, Calvin. There’s a lady present.”

  “Anyway,” Blaze continued, “I kicked him, where it hurts. While I was driving away, I heard him threaten me, saying he could get things done in this town.”

  The mayor lifted the document with a question in his eyes.

  She nodded. “Now I know what he meant.”

  Just as Blaze was about to lift her leg over Calvin’s head, he rose in front of her, knocking his chair backward. “You brazen little hussy! Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me here today?” He looked at her, his eyes filled with fury. “Well, I’m gonna get something for it, you can depend on that!” Acting as if he’d lost his mind, he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her backward on the table, and then scrambled up over her while trying to pull her skirt up.

  Since her legs were spread, it gave Calvin the advantage and she could feel his ugly dick hardening as he roughly pressed himself against her. But no sooner had he lowered himself over her, than she felt the crowd of men pulling him off. Once they got a firm hold, they continued pulling his struggling body toward the double doors while he yelled over his shoulder.

  “You goddamned fuckin’ bitch, I’ll get you for this!”

  “Get in line, you slimy bastard!”

  The mayor rose from his chair and came around the table to Blaze. “Meeting adjourned,” he said teasingly. “Ms. Alexander, you were absolutely fabulous. I can’t even begin to find the words to say how sorry I am. Calvin is…well, he’s one of those people who lets a high office go to his head. They corrupt easily, thinking the rules don’t apply to them.”

  “Looks like I’ve got another one after me.”

  “Calvin? Oh, don’t worry about Calvin. He’s nothing but a lot of hot air.” He lifted the petition. “That’s why I was so surprised to find he’d actually gone out and got something like this together. You must’ve got him pretty hot.”

  “But it’s not over, is it?” Blaze scooted off the table, and straightened her skirt.

  “No, I’m afraid it’s not. I hate to say it, but what happened here today doesn’t change anything.” His eyes scanned the signatures. “This paper is the people speaking, not Calvin. And no matter what lies he might have told, or what tricks he might have pulled to get the signatures, they’re still here and have to be recognized.”

  “So, Calvin wins, right?”

  “He wins, and he loses. For whatever it’s worth, it brings Calvin out of the closet, so to speak. We all knew he was a snake, but since he went around posing as a religious nut, it was hard to get it out in the open. Unfortunately, the South has a lot of men like Calvin. They do their dirty deeds in the name of God when it’s really the devil’s ball game. If you did nothing else, you gave me a valid reason to fire him. This little demonstration here today will go down in Savannah’s history.” He fingered the edge of the papers, then looked up at her. “Right along with you, Ms. Alexander.”

  Blaze’s smile was sad as she spoke. “Well, I always did want to go down in history. Now let’s see, there’s Cleopatra, Lucretia Borgia, and even Bathsheba.” She looked around at him and smiled. “One, a queen that committed suicide, the other poisoned her lovers, and the last, like me, was a terrible sinner. It seems they all had man problems. I hate to see where I fit into that little threesome.”

  “Well, I didn’t mean—”

  “I know, but there are no femme fatales I can group myself with that came out of Savannah,” she said. “I guess I’ll be the first.” She moved over to the window and looked out on the city. “Did you know I may be getting thrown out of my own hometown? Funny.” She frowned. “I don’t even know where I really come from.”

  “Copus, Georgia.”

  Blaze looked around. “Huh?”

  “Where you come from. It’s Copus, Georgia.”

  She turned away from the window and walked over to him, a suspicious scowl on her face. “How do you know so much about me?”

  The mayor looked down at her and smiled. “Oh, no, it’s nothing like that. I’m a fan, that’s all. Any fan worth their salt finds out a little bit about his heroine. Look at Elvis. There are some people out there that can tell you the very hour he was born.”

  Blaze laughed. “I guess so. All I remember is my aunt’s house. No one ever cared enough to tell me where my mother lived before she dumped me there.”

  “Dumped? You can call it that if you want. I prefer to sweeten the pot a bit. The way I see it, your mother was ambitious. She wanted things for you she couldn’t give you. She was beautiful and nearly all beautiful women at some time or other dream about acting, modeling, or being on Broadway.

  “She had a lot of courage pulling up stakes and going to the only place she knew that dream might come true, New York. She wasn’t trash, or anything near it. She was simply a young woman who believed in going after a dream. I also believe she had every intention of sending for you once she made it. Unfortunately, she fell prey to a serial killer.”

  He shook his head and lowered his gaze to the floor. “She made it, all right. She was one of the dead bodies when the serial killer had a movie done about his life. If it wasn’t so damned sad, it’d be funny.”

  “Was she poor?”

  The mayor shrugged. “I don’t suppose you’d call her rich by any means, but she made a living the best way she could. You had clothes on your back and food on the table.” He looked at her tenderly. “She loved you, Blaze.” He chuckled. “I never realized until now how much I do know about you. Hell, I could write a bo
ok.”

  A rush of emotions surged through her that brought a burning sensation of tears to her eyes. She fought against letting them fall, but lost the battle.

  “I’m so…”

  “No. Please don’t apologize.” She smiled tremulously when she looked up at the mayor. “I want to thank you for telling me about my mother. I’ve been told all my life that she was nothing but a tramp, and being her daughter I…well you can guess the rest.” Giving a quick swipe at her cheeks, she laughed with embarrassment. “Don’t forget to mention all that nice stuff when you write my life story.” She turned her face away quickly, and the mayor heard a muffled sob.

  “Have I said something wrong?”

  “No,” Blaze said, “It’s just that life can be so damned cruel. My mother gets killed by a serial killer, and I…well never mind about me.” She wondered just how much the mayor knew about her ugly past. “I’m just a barefoot waif from the wrong side of the tracks that just happened to fall in love with the wail of a slide trombone.” She turned and looked at him. “So much so that I made a career out of it. Be sure to add that, it’s sure to sell a million copies.”

  “Life has been hard, I know.” He then looked down at the cruel paper he held in his hand. “Dammit,” he said, regret rising like a tide in him. “I’m so sorry I have to add to it.”

  Blaze turned to see him looking at it sadly. “Don’t worry about it, Mayor. It’s time I went back to L.A., anyway.” She walked to the window once again and looked out on the city. “You know, it’s strange. I lived in L.A. for years and nothing like this ever happened.” She shrugged. “Then I come down here and within only a few weeks, my life is turned upside down. I’ve been threatened, propositioned time and again, almost killed, and even fell in love. Then I meet a creep like Calvin that’s parading around like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” She cut her gaze over to the mayor, and continued teasingly. “To top it all off, I get exiled.”

  He gave her a weak smile.

  “Those kinds of things are only supposed to happen in the big city, or the movies. Certainly not a tame little place like Savannah.”

  “Tame?” He looked at her amused. “No, not tame, Ms. Alexander. Savannah’s part of the world, and we’re only straight-laced on the surface. I hate to say it of my own city, but if you dig down deep enough, you’ll find an ugly underbelly that’s just as bad as Chicago, New York, or L.A.” Unfortunately, the devil lives here, too.”