Rough Edges

by Chambers, V. J.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Sam opened his eyes. His jaw was sore. It was sending spasms of sharp pain up into his temple. He tried to move, but he was tied up. He lay on his stomach, his hands and feet tied behind him. He was trussed up like an animal.

  With effort, he managed to roll over on his side. The weight of his body settled on his arm. Ow. He grimaced.

  Now he could see where he was.

  He was in the living room of his house, lying in front of the couch. He could see the door, only a few feet away. But that wasn’t what surprised him.

  Lola was there. And she was tied up too, just like him.

  “About time you woke up, Sam,” said Lola.

  Why was she tied up too? Wasn’t she working with Todd? At the very least, she’d said Todd thought they were working together. Her being tied up must be some kind of trap.

  He rolled back onto his stomach, unable to handle the pain in his arm. But he kept his head facing Lola. He wanted to be able to see her.

  “This is my fault,” she said. “I shouldn’t have shown you the email address. That wasn’t the plan. It was only that it was too tantalizing. You told me that you didn’t quite trust me. And I wanted to see what would happen if you had evidence that I was really untrustworthy. I wanted to see if it would still work. And I guess the answer to that is no.”

  Sam groaned. She was going to talk, was she? He really didn’t care. He needed to get untied. He needed to get out of here. He didn’t see Todd anywhere.

  “Looking for Nick?” said Lola. “He’s not here anymore.”

  Sam didn’t want to speak to her, but if she was going to offer information, maybe he’d have to. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know. He ran off.”

  Sam sighed. “Why are you tied up?”

  “Probably because Nick wants to kill me.”

  “I thought you were working together.”

  “Well, it’s a funny thing,” she said. “I guess Nick and I were playing games with each other. See, I helped him get out of jail, for my own reasons, of course. Definitely not because I wanted to get back with him or anything. But I pretended I did. And apparently, Nick was pretending too.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “He’s still pissed at me for sending him to jail. He wants to kill me. He wasn’t lying about that.”

  Sam’s head was throbbing. “I don’t understand. If he wants to kill you, why would you let him out of jail?”

  “It’s a game, Sammy,” said Lola. She giggled. “That’s what Hannah called you, right? Sammy?”

  “How the fuck do you know so much about her?”

  “Oh, I know all about you, Sammy,” she purred. “I spent a long time looking for the right person to play this game with. So, I did a lot of searching. Some of it was easy to find. Some of it took some digging and some hacking and things like that. But I’m pretty good with computers. I’m smart, Sam. You have to be smart to pull off the shit I’ve pulled off.”

  “What have you pulled off?”

  “I killed my parents, obviously,” she said. “And I got away with it.”

  “You’re crazy,” Sam said grimly. “All this time, I’ve been trying to figure you out, and it turns out you’re just nuts.”

  “Don’t be silly, Sam. I’m just as sane as you are.” She chortled. “Actually, maybe that’s not saying much. You’ve got your own issues, don’t you?”

  He decided not to rise to the bait. Maybe he did have issues. He was pretty sure he was better off than she was, though. “Why? Why did you do this? Why ask me about the book? Why bring me into this? What do you want with me?”

  “Oh, let’s not start there, Sam,” she said. “Let’s start at the beginning. I think we’ll have lots of time. I think Nick’s going to be gone for a while. He’ll probably want to savor this.”

  Sam grunted. He tested the bonds on his hands. They seemed to be holding pretty tight. “I guess I can’t stop you, can I?”

  “I thought you’d want to know.” She sounded genuinely confused. “You’ve been spending all this time trying to find out the truth. I’m going to tell you. Aren’t you at least a little bit curious?”

  Actually, he was in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable. It tended to negate curiosity. On the other hand, maybe if she talked, it would distract him. “All right, Lola. Say I am curious. Start at the beginning.”

  She smiled. “Sorry you don’t have your recorder.”

  “Does it matter? Am I going to live long enough to write this book?”

  “Oh, I hope so,” said Lola. “But I don’t think this is the version you should put in the book. Don’t worry about that, though. We’ll talk about it later.”

  So she wasn’t planning on killing him? Of course, she was probably lying.

  “Well,” said Lola, “it started out as a thought experiment. I started thinking about how someone could create a perfect murder. And I thought that what you’d need to do is to get someone else to do it for you. Because then it was more like using a person like a finely tuned instrument. I thought the tuning part would be the most fun.”

  “How old were you?”

  “When I first thought of it? I don’t know. Maybe nine or ten. I didn’t do it right away, because it’s hard to get people to do things for you when you’re that young. But then… the puberty gods smiled on me, and out of nowhere, I got boobs. And that’s when I started thinking that the best way to get someone to do that for you would be to get him to fall in love with you.

  “So,” she continued, “I picked Nick. But I didn’t do a very good job, honestly. I was too young, and I made some stupid mistakes. For one thing, I should have figured that anyone who was twenty-three years old and willing to fall in love with a twelve-year-old, was, you know, disturbed.”

  Sam snorted. “Are you serious?”

  “I am. I was dumb. Nick was relatively stupid, and he fell for me really easily, so I figured that I could control him. But it didn’t work out that way. For one thing, he jumped the gun on me.”

  “What?”

  “There was supposed to be a plan in place, Sam,” she said. “I was supposed to tell Nick when to come to do my parents. I would have gotten him in. I would have gotten him the right weapons. And then I would have had a better plan for getting away afterward. The whole thing wasn’t nearly ready when he did it. So, when I said that I was really surprised when he showed up, well, I wasn’t lying.”

  She sighed. “Anyway, so he did it or whatever, and it was just really messy and gory and bad. And there was no reason for it to have been like that. If we had followed my plan, my parents would have barely suffered. It would have been quick.”

  Sam felt disgusted. Was she seriously trying to say that killing someone for her own amusement would be okay if there was no suffering?

  “But then, you know, it was done, so we had to leave,” said Lola. “And after the murder, Nick was impossible to control. It was like something had been unleashed in him, and he was completely nuts.”

  “He was nuts,” said Sam dryly.

  “I’m not kidding,” said Lola. “I was mad at him, and I was not exactly inclined to let him have sex with me, but he just… well, anyway, that was bad. I didn’t like that at all. And then… well, then he wouldn’t stop killing people. Like everywhere we went, he just killed people. And that was when I realized he liked killing people. And now that he’d started, he wasn’t going to stop. So, I had to do something. I turned him in. I mean, it wasn’t the way things were supposed to go. I didn’t want to grow up in foster care. I thought that Nick would stay nice and malleable after the murders, and that I could get him to do what I needed to do.”

  Sam chuckled. “So, you accidentally picked a psychopath instead of a regular person for your sick plan. And that upset you. Well, I’d say you got everything you deserved.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to get like that about it,” said Lola. “You act like killing my parents is so awful, but you wouldn’t have a
job if people didn’t do shit like that. You feed off of it, Sam. Don’t be a fucking hypocrite.”

  Sam decided not to rise to that insult. He wriggled his hands. Still no give with the ropes. “You took a lot of risks, didn’t you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Lying to the police, for one. Telling them that you and Nick weren’t in a relationship.”

  “I couldn’t tell them the truth. It made me look bad.”

  “But you hadn’t done a very good job covering it up. You’re lucky that all the people who knew about your relationship didn’t come forward during the trial.”

  She was quiet.

  “Why didn’t they, Lola? That has never made sense to me.”

  “I don’t know. Like you said, I was lucky.”

  He tried to move again, not that he really could. He felt really uncomfortable. “Why didn’t you do a better job hiding it in the first place? If your plan was to create the perfect murder, why leave a trail leading from you to Nick? Why let anyone see you together? Why tell your friends about your older boyfriend?”

  Now Lola was wriggling against her bonds. “I told you, I was young and stupid. I messed up.”

  “It seems like you messed up a lot,” said Sam. “It doesn’t seem to me like you got away with it because you were smart at all. It seems to me like you got away with it because you caught a break.”

  She shot a glare at him. “I am smart. Nick messed it up. My plan was better than his.”

  “And I guess you have a plan this time too. That why you let him out of jail?”

  “Of course I have a plan,” she said. “And it’s not like I let him out of jail exactly. All I did was communicate to him that he should put in for a transfer. Then I bribed someone to put a gun in the back of the car he was being transported in. Nick did everything else.”

  “You haven’t been talking to him? Telling him stuff about me? About Rachel?”

  Lola bit her lip. “I’m sorry about Rachel, Sam.”

  “Did you tell him about her?”

  “I did, but I didn’t tell him to kill her. He’s hard to control, though. He gets ideas—”

  “Shut up,” said Sam. “Don’t talk to me anymore.” He turned his face away from her.

  * * *

  Hours had passed.

  Sam’s hands and feet were numb. His whole body ached from being stuck in this position for so long. His clothes were still wet from being out in the snow. They hadn’t completely dried. So he was wet and cold on the bottom half of his body. But on the top half, he was still wearing his winter coat, so he was sweating. His head was pounding.

  “Where is Todd?” he muttered. He wasn’t exactly asking Lola about it. He was asking the universe. At this point, he almost wished the guy would come back. He didn’t want to die, but he didn’t think he could handle being tied up like this anymore.

  “Who knows?” said Lola. “He’s dragging it out. He always wanted to drag things out, but I never let him. I had that much control over the situation, anyway.”

  “Drag things out?”

  “You know, kill people more slowly. Let them wait and get more afraid. He said it would make it better. I said it would make it easier to get caught.”

  Great. That was just wonderful.

  All right. Fuck this. If Todd was going to leave them both here tied up for eons on end, then Sam was going to get free.

  Sam rolled back onto his side. Pain lanced up his arm. He gritted his teeth. He forced himself to roll over on his back. The weight of his body settled onto his hands and arms, crushing them. He cried out.

  “What are you doing?” said Lola.

  Sam shifted his weight to his shoulders, lifting his hips off of his hands. He began to squirm, trying to push his hands around his pelvis. “I’m trying to get my hands in front of my body. Maybe then I can use my teeth to—”

  “You’ll never manage that,” said Lola. “Your hands are tied to your feet, idiot. It’s not going to work.”

  “Well, of course you’d say that. For all I know, you’re here to keep me company until Todd shows up. You want to keep me here so when he gets back, I’m easy pickings.”

  “No,” she said. “That’s not what I want at all.”

  Sam tried to force his arms around his hips. His arm sockets screamed in pain. He stopped, breathing hard.

  “Sam, I had a completely different idea when I got here. And I guess now’s as good a time to tell you about it as any.”

  Sam resumed his struggle. “Why don’t you just shut up?”

  “Look, when I got Nick to murder for me, it didn’t turn out well. Plus, it didn’t mean anything. Nick likes to kill. So, it wasn’t so much my achievement. It was like waving a bottle of whiskey in front of an alcoholic. I didn’t convince him to do anything.”

  Sam rested again. He was getting nowhere.

  “So, I’ve always wanted to try again,” she said. “I wanted to do it right this time, though. Get someone who isn’t violent, but who might be screwed up enough to do what I wanted. Someone like you.”

  “What?” He was only half-paying attention to her now.

  “I brought you here to kill Nick, Sam,” she said. “That’s all I want. Kill him for me.”

  He started laughing. She couldn’t be serious. Really?

  “Why are you laughing?” she said. “At first I thought I’d play on your protective side. After all, you’re such a sucker for damsels in distress. But the more I found out about Hannah, the less I was sure that would work. Hannah was quite a character, wasn’t she?”

  “Stop it,” said Sam. “Stop talking about her.”

  “I thought I needed to make you love me, but now I realize that doesn’t matter. Because you’ll kill Nick to save yourself. And it’s still my triumph, because I got you both here. I set this up perfectly. This is my masterpiece.”

  “How is it your masterpiece?” said Sam. “We’re both tied up here, and we can’t get free. I’m not going to kill him, he’s going to kill me.”

  “I brought a gun,” she said brightly. “It’s in my duffle bag.”

  “Lola, I can’t get out of these stupid ropes.” He rolled back over onto this stomach. His ribs hurt.

  “Right,” she said. “Well, maybe we could saw them apart with the car keys. They’re in my pocket.”

  “My car keys are in your pocket?”

  “Uh huh.” She had begun to scoot across the carpet to him, using whatever body part she could to drag herself along. “I can’t get them, but maybe if I get close to you, you can get them with your teeth.”

  He guessed it might work. He started scooting towards her as well.

  They met in the middle of the floor, and both rolled painfully onto their sides.

  Lola thrust her hip against his face.

  He grunted. The bulge of the keys in her pocket was even with his nose, but they weren’t peeking out of the opening or anything. He tried to use his chin to nudge them.

  “Ow,” muttered Lola. “You’re digging into my skin.”

  “Sorry,” he said, but he wasn’t. He’d moved the keys a little bit. He did it again.

  Success. A key ring popped out of the top of her pocket. He maneuvered his head into position and grabbed the key ring with his teeth. Then he dragged the keys out.

  “You got it!” said Lola.

  He looked at her, keys dangling from his mouth. Now what?

  “We need to wedge them against something,” said Lola. “That way we can saw the rope against them. Here, I’ll come around. You can hold them in your mouth.”

  He spat out the keys. “Oh no. I don’t think so. I’m not helping you get free. You’re helping me get free.”

  She stuck out her lower lip. “Don’t be like that Sam. We have to work together.”

  “If I get free, I’ll free you too,” he said. “But I go first, okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “Now lie on your back like I was and hold these keys between your feet.
”

  * * *

  It seemed to take forever, and if it weren’t for Lola telling him he was making progress, he might have simply given up. They had to take breaks. The position they had to get in to facilitate the sawing was uncomfortable for both of them.

  But eventually, the rope at Sam’s hands got so weak that he was able to snap it. And then he was able to use his fingers to untie his feet. He got to his feet, stretching. He never thought that standing up would feel so damned good.

  “Now help me,” said Lola, still on the floor.

  Sam didn’t. Instead, he strode over to her duffle bag and riffled through it until he found the gun she’d been talking about. It was a revolver—small and black. Sam opened the chamber to see that it was loaded. Six bullets. He looked through the duffle bag for more ammunition.

  All he found was Lola’s underwear.

  Whatever. Six bullets would have to be enough.

  He walked over to Lola and pressed the gun against her forehead.

  She laughed. “What are you doing, Sam?”

  He cocked the gun.

  “You don’t actually think you’re going to kill me, do you?”

  Pull the trigger, Sam, he told himself.

  “You can’t kill me,” said Lola. “It’s cute that you’re trying. Very heroic of you, really, getting rid of a nasty, evil girl like me. But don’t be an idiot. You’re not going to do it, so stop pretending like you are.”

  “You’re wrong,” he said. “I am going to do it.” But his hand was shaking.

  He was thinking about Hannah in the fire, lying there burning. But Sam couldn’t get to her because he was busy with Dad. Way too busy…

  “Sam,” said Lola.

  He jammed the barrel into her forehead, his nostrils flaring.

  And there was a noise behind him.

  Sam whirled, gun at the ready.

  The door was opening. Todd stepped inside, shaking off the snow.

  Sam fired the gun.

  The shot didn’t go anywhere near Todd. It lodged in the wall behind him, several feet away from his head.

  Todd dove back out through the door, back into the snow.

  Sam scrambled after him.

  Outside, the snow was even deeper, but it had stopped falling. It was growing dark, but the fallen snow shimmered brightly in the scant light.