Dead Weight

by Ragan, T. R.

  “You mean dead body smells?”

  Lizzy nodded. “Right. No scent of a decomposing body. The girl really likes her privacy. If she’s inside and alive, I need to talk to her about Diane. She’s my only hope. If she’s not inside, I need to search her apartment for clues, and I don’t think the police would allow me to have access were I to call them and convince them that Vivian might be in danger. I need to do this today. My body can’t take another morning in the gym.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Hayley said. “You’re talking way too fast and you lost me at ‘show me the way.’”

  “Why don’t I explain it all in the car? It’s going to get dark soon.”

  “Dark is good,” Hayley told her in a calming voice. “You don’t break and enter in the daylight, Lizzy.” Hayley shook her head. “You really are losing it. I knew it was getting bad, but not this bad.”

  Hayley shut the door and locked it. “First we need to dress in dark clothes, and I don’t mean a ski mask and gloves, just dark jeans and a dark normal looking shirt. After we’re dressed appropriately, you need to buy me a couple of tacos on our way to the apartment building because I’m starved.”

  ***

  If there was one thing Lizzy didn’t like it was the dark. Dark clothes, dark night, and the dark decaying building didn’t help matters.

  This wasn’t fun, but then why did Hayley look so damn calm? She was in her element, Lizzy thought, that’s why.

  “Which apartment?” Hayley asked after they parked the car.

  “154A. Her apartment is upstairs, on the corner.”

  Lizzy watched Hayley unzip a slim, black pouch. She pulled out two metal picks. “This is a twisted tension wrench. I also like the short hook, another useful pick.”

  Lizzy nodded. Now was not the time to question Hayley on her abundance of breaking and entering equipment. “Come on. Follow me,” Lizzy said. “I’ve knocked on the door twice. I know exactly where we need to go.”

  Two minutes later they were standing outside the apartment. Lizzy was about to knock when Hayley stopped her. “What are you doing?” she whispered into her ear.

  “I thought we should give Vivian one more chance to answer before we barge inside.”

  “If you want the neighbors to come out and see what we’re up to then go ahead and knock.”

  “Just do your thing,” Lizzy said, frustrated. Before Lizzy could get any more nervous than she already was, Hayley used the tension wrench to open the door. She pulled Lizzy inside without a word said, and then quietly shut and locked the door.

  “I’ll look for the girl,” Hayley whispered. “Use your flashlight and start looking for whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  Lizzy shook her head. “I’m going with you. I need to make sure Vivian isn’t hurt before I go snooping around her apartment.”

  Hayley was already walking off, leaving Lizzy to follow.

  The place was small: one bedroom, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and an even tinier patio with one chair and one dead plant.

  Hayley opened the bedroom closet and then went to the bathroom and checked the linen closet. There was also a closet containing a small washer and dryer, one on top of the other. Vivian was not here.

  Lizzy headed back to the desk in the corner of the bedroom and began searching through drawers.

  “The longer we take,” Hayley told her, “the better our chances of being caught. I suggest you put anything you might want to look at in this bag.” Hayley handed Lizzy a reusable grocery bag she’d found in the other room. “Just shove it all in there. If it’ll make you feel better, you can send it all back to Vivian later or leave it at her doorstep in few days.”

  Lizzy’s cell phone vibrated.

  “Don’t answer your phone.”

  “It’s Jessica. She’s on surveillance. I have to take the call.” She hit Talk. “Jessica, what’s going on? Where have you been? You’re supposed to check in every hour.”

  “Lizzy, you’re never going to believe this, but I’ve been following Ellen Woodson on the highway for three hours now. She took a three hour lunch, but it turns out she was packing for a little trip.”

  “Where are you exactly?”

  “I just passed a small airport. I’m on 99 headed south.”

  It was dark, but Lizzy could see Hayley stabbing a finger toward the exit.

  “You’re doing great,” Lizzy said. “It’s late so it looks like you might end up having to get a hotel after you follow Ellen to her destination. Get the address and then head for a hotel and call me.”

  “Will do.”

  “I have to go now. Great work, Jessica. Call me back in an hour.” She shut her cell phone and tucked it into her pocket.

  “I’m leaving,” Hayley said, her voice heated.

  “Give me two more minutes.”

  There was a rap tap tap on the door.

  “Shit.”

  Hayley disappeared for a minute and then came back. “Looks like nosey neighbors. Happy?”

  Lizzy started piling every folder and file she could find into the bag. At the last minute, she grabbed the desk calendar and tucked it under her arm before following Hayley to the door.

  “It’s clear,” Hayley said. “I’m going.”

  “It’s too soon.” But that didn’t stop Hayley. Nothing stopped Hayley. Lizzy had no choice but to follow the girl or spend the night in Vivian’s apartment. They were almost to the stairs when a woman called out. Hayley kept walking, but Lizzy was chicken shit and couldn’t do it. She turned back to the woman. “Can I help you?”

  “Are you Vivian’s mother?”

  “Yes,” Lizzy said without hesitating, “yes, I am. Vivian’s in the hospital with a ruptured appendicitis.”

  “Oh, no. Is she going to be alright?”

  “Surgery went well. The doctors are expecting a full recovery. We just stopped by to grab a few of her things that she requested.”

  “I’m so glad. Hank and I have been very worried about Vivian.”

  “No need. She’s good. Thanks for your concern.” Lizzy started walking backwards. “I’ll tell her that you and Hank send your sympathies.”

  “We would appreciate it.” The woman smiled and waved.

  Lizzy turned and jogged down the stairs and the rest of the way to the car.

  Hayley was already behind the wheel. She wasn’t taking any chances. “Give me your keys,” Hayley said with her hand extended, the one with only four fingers held palm up as she waited for the keys. “Now.”

  Lizzy did as she said, although she didn’t appreciate her tone or the idea of taking orders from the girl who had way too much attitude today.

  Five minutes passed before Hayley said, “You are the worst burglar in the history of burglars. I hope you had a nice chat with the neighbors. Did you make sure she got a good look at you?”

  “I’m pretty sure she could pick me out in a line-up,” Lizzy confessed.

  “You think this whole thing was funny, don’t you?”

  “I do now that we’re safely in the getaway car.”

  “Don’t ever ask me to do anything like that again,” Hayley said. “At least not with you. I’ll go alone next time. I don’t know what I was thinking trying to teach you how to do something illegal. Goody two-shoes like you and Jessica are not cut out for this type of work.”

  “Goody two-shoes?”

  “I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

  Lizzy wanted to release some nervous laughter, but now wasn’t the time. She was relieved that it was over. She even had a strange feeling of euphoria at having accomplished what she set out to do. “The neighbor woman was sweet,” Lizzy said. “She was just worried about Vivian. She thought I was Vivian’s mom and so I went along with it.”

  Hayley didn’t respond.

  “You’re right,” Lizzy said. “I asked you to help me with something illegal and immoral and then I didn’t follow orders. I could have gotten us both in a lot of trouble. I’m sorry. I truly am.
”

  There was a police car in the far right lane. Lizzy saw Hayley hold her breath while the patrol car passed them by.

  “I’m the one who should be apologizing,” Hayley said after the police car made a right and disappeared. “I went to see my mom last week.”

  That explained Hayley’s recent change of mood. “How was she?”

  Hayley didn’t answer right away and Lizzy didn’t rush her.

  “She was the same,” Hayley finally said, her voice strained. “Exactly the same. She’s living in filth and she doesn’t want to change.”

  Lizzy sat quietly.

  Hayley exhaled, keeping her eyes on the road in front of her. “I offered to take mom to Narcotics Anonymous. I told her I would pick her up and attend the meetings with her, but she said she couldn’t do it. She said she was weak and that I was the strong one.”

  “Stronger than most,” Lizzy agreed.

  “I’m not as strong as I pretend to be,” Hayley said. “I lie awake at night fantasizing about revenge against every perverted monster out there. I’m all screwed up inside, Lizzy. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but it’s not good. My thoughts are dark and sometimes I feel like I’m being strangled from the inside out. I don’t think I can overcome the darkness like you did.”

  “Hayley, you have only just begun to dig yourself out of the nightmare you’ve had to live. You have to fight it. It’s way too early to think about giving in.”

  After a moment Lizzy added, “I still have nightmares. Spiderman is dead and yet he’s not. He’s inside my head, but I’ll never stop trying to get him out of there. More than anything I want peace. I want you to have peace, too. And people like Ruth Fullerton. We all have our demons. Sometimes I think it’s not a matter of getting rid of our demons as much as it is learning to live with them.”

  ***

  Jessica looked at the clock. She had been driving for four hours and twenty-five minutes without a pit stop. More than anything, Jessica had to pee. For the past thirty minutes, she’d been wriggling in her seat. There was nothing she could do about it. There was no way she was going to lose Ellen. If that happened, her entire day would be one big waste of time.

  Just as Jessica contemplated peeing in her pants, the left blinker on Ellen’s car lit up.

  Thank God.

  A few miles back they had exited onto CA 58 East. It was dark now that they were no longer on a main road. It was impossible for Jessica to see the road signs.

  Ellen was driving faster. She probably had to use the restroom too.

  Jessica tried to memorize lefts and rights, but quickly gave that up, figuring she’d just have to write down the nearest address once they came to a stop.

  About eight miles up the road, Ellen made a right onto a long dirt road. The sign was big enough that Jessica could make out the words: Livingston Farms. Jessica did not follow Ellen down the road. Instead, she drove straight ahead, made an illegal U-turn and came back to the road. She turned off her lights and slowly made her way over the dirt road that appeared to be one long driveway.

  Ellen’s car was long gone and that caused Jessica to panic. She sped up to about twenty mph until she saw a small farmhouse up ahead on the right. The road was narrow, but she pulled her car as far over to one side as she could before she shut off the engine. She crept quietly out of her car and hurried toward the nearest tree. Under any other circumstance, she never would have even considered leaving the car. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

  The hoot of an owl sounded in the distance. Jessica took her time relieving herself. She felt like a new woman as she zipped her jeans and walked back to her car.

  As soon as she climbed in behind the wheel something sharp stabbed into the back of her head. “Get out of the car nice and slowly. Any fast moves and I’ll blow your head off.”

  Chapter 30

  Doctor, Doctor

  “Could you leave the mirror alone and loosen the cuffs a little, sweetheart?”

  Hayley ignored Dr. Daniel Williams, a physician who specialized in spinal injury medicine and rehabilitation. He was considered to be one of the best spinal doctors in the area, but like many men, doctors, lawyers, and politicians included, he had a weakness for illegal sex.

  The reason Hayley had selected Dr. Williams as her victim, over dozens of other doctors who enjoyed the age-old practice of buying sex, was his attitude.

  After cuffing Williams’ hands to the swirly scrollwork of the cast-iron bed, she moved on to tying thick leather straps around his ankles. Like Peter, Randy, and Brian, she’d been watching Dr. Daniel Williams for a few months now. She knew he brought the girls he picked up to this particular dump of a hotel. She’d visited the hotel more than once and she already knew that the cast-iron framed beds would be perfect for tying and cuffing.

  While tightening the leather straps around his ankles, Hayley caught her reflection in the mirrored wall to her right. Seeing herself in a full length mirror threw her off track. The black push-up bra beneath a see-through blouse together with the sequin mini-skirt was enough to catch a lot of unwanted attention, but the skirt and bra wasn’t what Hayley was focused on. It was the short spiky blonde wig, blue eye shadow, and funky four-inch wedges that made it impossible to look away. She could hardly believe the person looking back at her was actually her. She might have laughed, maybe even cried, if she thought she could get away with it.

  But the man on tonight’s menu wasn’t drunk or drugged. She had to be careful. Unlike the others, this man did not know her, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be able to pick her out of a lineup if things went awry. And laughing or crying would only serve to give her away.

  She had too much work to do to let a little lapse in judgment mess up her plans. She turned back to Williams and pulled on the strap around his ankle.

  “Ouch. Damn it, sweetheart, you’re going to hurt me if you’re not careful there.”

  She brushed a finger over the bottom of his foot.

  He tried to pull away, but couldn’t, which meant she’d done her job. He was secure.

  “Stop that. And stop chewing that nasty gum.”

  She snapped, crackled, and popped just to piss him off.

  “No, really,” he said. “I’m serious.”

  She blew a bubble. A big one. POP.

  “I’m done. That’s it. Undo these cuffs and take off those straps. I’m not going to pay you either.”

  That look—she knew that look. It was the same smug look Brian used to give her every time he came into her room.

  “Oh, come on,” she said in a breathy voice. “Don’t be such a baby. I thought you enjoyed a little S&M every once in a while.”

  “Not S&M, honey; B&D is more my style.”

  Hands on hips, she took a step back and looked at him long and hard. “Is that right? I didn’t know there was a difference.” The guy looked like Brad from the original Rocky Horror Picture Show. He even wore the same geeky glasses.

  “My preferences fall toward bondage and discipline,” he explained, “not sadism and masochism.”

  “Whatever.”

  He lifted a brow. “If you’re a professional, shouldn’t you know the difference?”

  She grabbed the strap around his other ankle and yanked hard. “You’re probably right,” she told him.

  “Do you have a name?”

  She chewed her gum, blew a giant bubble and then watched it slowly deflate.

  The expression on his face turned from anger to worry. “Who are you?”

  She walked across the room, picked up her backpack from the floor and then came back to him and set her backpack on the edge of the bed. Reaching inside, she pulled out a roll of duct tape.

  “I want to know what’s going on,” he said as he watched her rip off a piece of tape. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  Using her free hand, she grabbed his neatly folded shirt from the chair nearby and used it to wipe his mouth before placing the duct tape over his smooth
ly shaven jaw. He was mumbling now, his eyes growing wider by the second.

  She reached inside her backpack again and pulled out a black permanent marker and a soldering iron which she plugged into the wall socket.

  He didn’t seem to like her soldering equipment at all. Oh well, he had serial killer Samuel Jones to thank for that idea.

  His mumbling grew louder, but she wasn’t worried. They got all kinds in this hotel; hearing moaning and groaning and other strange noises through the walls was nothing new.

  She glanced at the good doctor’s face.

  Yeah, he was definitely seeing red now.

  “Maybe,” she told him, “this will teach you to stop thinking with your dick instead of your brain.” She tapped her knuckles on his forehead. “Do you have a brain in there?”

  She grabbed the permanent marker, climbed onto the bed and straddled him while she wrote two words in big bold letters, centered and in all caps, above his navel: SICK FUCK. She ignored the panicked mumbles beneath the duct tape as he bucked and twisted.

  She climbed down and then ripped the duct tape from his mouth.

  “What do you want from me?” he begged.

  She tucked her pen inside her backpack and pulled out a letter addressed to his wife and the CEO of the hospital where he worked. She held the letter in front of his face so he could read what it said.

  “What would you do if your wife knew everything about you?” Hayley asked him when he finished reading the letter.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I am glad you asked,” Hayley answered. “There is something I need you to get for me.”

  “What is it? Money? How much do you need?”

  She pressed a finger into the middle of his chest and said, “Listen carefully. I need a syringe filled with an immobilizing drug and, of course, a hypodermic needle. Etorphine hydrochloride, haloperidol, immobilon, take your pick. The man I plan to inject is approximately five foot ten, 160 pounds. I need to put him out in under a minute...two at the most.”