The Perfect Woman

by Abundis, Jesse

  Slowly an old waitress came from the kitchen with her notepad in hand to take Peewee’s order. “ What can I get ya twiggy ?”She said in a strong southern accent.

  “ Twiggy?” Peewee was offended, he was slim, but not a twig, and he was pretty sure she would take back her comment if she saw his abes of the steal. The ones that were hard to see from the distance, you could only see them at an angle. “ Whatever, look, is Maggie around. I really need to talk to her.”

  “ Maggie quit.” The old Southern waitress said, sticking the pencil back into her gray honeycomb hair.

  “ She quit, why?” Peewee asked.

  “ Don’t ask me twiggy, she just stop showing up three days ago, not a call or anything. Just gave up.” The old woman picked up the dishes and slammed them hard as she put them away. “ Stupid girl, had to quit on my days off, how rude is that, in my days, you just didn’t do that.”

  “ Yeah, and people rode dinosaurs and you used to dildo yourself with a wooden stick.” Peewee thought to himself, but never said outloud. “ Thank you.” Peewee just waved goodbye to the old woman and patted the fat gentlemen’s shoulder one final time before exiting the diner. He reached into his pocket and called Maggie’s cell, only to get sent to voice mail.

  “ Hi, this is Maggie Donner. I’m not in right now, but if you want to leave your name and message I promise to get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you.”

  “ Mag’s, it’s me, where are you? I just stop by your job. They said you haven’t shown up for three days, What’s up with that? Let’s get together right now and have lunch, I got some great news, we’re getting closer in catching the bastard, call me back.” He entered the car unsatisfied, he wanted to talk to Maggie. He knew this wasn’t like her to just drop out of sight. She used this job not to just pay for bills but to distract herself from thinking about Lisa.

  He pulled the car out of the parking lot and drove like a bat out of hell. He was going to make one more stop before heading back to Karen, he was heading to Maggie’s apartment complex, hopefully she was in bed just fighting the flu, probably in need of some T.L.C. How he hoped.

  Chapter 63

  Ashtray Heart

  It was stupid, it was risky, but Karen knew what she was doing. She knew the private eye had been following her for a few minutes already, she had plenty of chances to lose him, but that wasn’t the plan, she wanted to get him alone. A little payback for coming into her room at night. She played the dumb and clueless once more, giving him the boost of confidence of getting the drop. She could almost hear his heart race with excitement with each turn they made. “ Follow me down the rabbit hole.” Karen said under her breath.

  Karen made the turn into an alley, a good spot to hide with the garbage bins and piles of trash. She quickly ducked behind a bin waiting for him to come. The detective was so eager to catch her, that he came rushing past her, never seeing how close she was to him. “ Fuck,” He kicked the ground. “ clever little witch.”

  Karen rushed up behind, pulling out a little dagger she carried with her at all times when she went out for a walk in the middle of the night, she pressed it tightly against the Detective’s neck. “ You have no clue how clever I am.” She said to him, she could hear the erratic breathing coming from the detective, he never pictured Karen getting the drop on him. “ You know it’s self-defense if I stab you.” She whispered nice and hard in his ear.

  “ Do it,” He told her. “ killing comes natural to you.” The sweat began to run down his lip.

  “ I didn’t kill anyone.” She told him.

  “ For a moment, I thought so too, you just don’t look the type.” Karen turned the detective around and shoved him against the wall, keeping the knife to his neck. “ But now, oh no, you’re a cold blooded monster.” He said, grinning nervously. “ I can see that clearly.”

  Karen just laughed at him. “ You are so cute when you’re scared shitless.”

  “ Tell me, is this the monster Ryan and Ruby saw the day they died?”

  “ Who the fuck is Ruby?” Karen slowly inched the blade from his neck.

  “ Don’t play dumb!” He shouted back, only to have Karen press the blade at his adams apple for the outburst. “ Wait, wait,” He stuttered repeatedly.

  “ I’ll ask you again, who the hell is Ruby?”

  The Detective closed his eyes, before saying anything. “ She was the third victim, you remember her, don’t you?”

  Karen just shook her head. “ I don’t have a clue who that is, Ryan was the only one who died in the fire. There was no Ruby.”

  “ Wow, I didn’t think it was possible.“ The Detective began to chuckle. “ That day really did a number on you didn’t it, you’ve fooled yourself from the truth all this time. You really believe your innocent, don’t you?”

  Karen gripped the throat of the Detective with her right hand nice and tight. “ Consider this your last warning, I don’t want to see you near my place, I don’t want to see you following me, I don’t want you bugging my friend, in fact I want you out of New York, I want you to go back to the Moser family and tell them to move on. What happened to their son, “ She swallowed hard. “ my husband, was heartbreaking. We all need to find closure and move on.” She released her grip, and put the small knife back into her pocket.

  The Detective gasped and crawled on the floor, trying to compose himself. “ This isn’t over.” He hissed out, trying to get to his feet. “ I’m not done.”

  Karen walked away, shaking her head. “ Just drop this, whatever they’re paying won’t make lies turn into truth.”

  “ It‘s not the Moser‘s who are paying me..” He yelled at her.

  “ Bullshit.” She spat at him.

  “ No, it’s true.” He smirked.

  “ Drop this.” Karen warned him.

  “ She paid me to do a job and I’m going to do it.” His eyes flashed with determination.

  “ You found me, so why not do it when I slept?” Karen asked.

  “ Stubborn minds, but they'll come around, they always do.” He grinned at her, still sweating from fear.

  “ These tactics, this ambush is not their idea.” That wasn't a question to him. “ You're out here for pleasure, wanting a little fun and excitement before the end.”

  “ You are messed up in the head.” He laughed even harder.

  “ Leave.” She warned him.

  “ If you want me gone, you’ll have to kill me.”

  Karen turned to the heaving detective, who looked too rattled to stand. “ Is that the only way to stop you ?”

  “ Yes.” His words were truthful and sound.

  Karen shook her head at him and began to walk away.“ Goodbye, Detective.” She exited the alley, making her way back home. Leaving the breathless detective alone with his thoughts. Knowing, this cat and mouse game would only end in blood, be it hers or his.

  Chapter 64

  No Goodbyes

  The drive grew worst for Peewee with each stoplight. His mind swirled with only the worst images as he saw no response back from Maggie. He parked the mustang, half way to the street outside her complex, it didn't matter now, he couldn't stop thinking of her.

  He rushed passed the druggies and drunks on the hallway, trampling quite a few of them, they cursed and screamed at him, but his mind never connected with their words. He knew Maggie would never just drop off the face of the earth as she did. But what if the pressure had gotten to her, all that false hope ringing hollow to her each day, eating away at her, causing her to do the unthinkable. “ Maggie, it’s me.” He said out loud as he banged on the door fearfully out of his mind. But, no one answered.

  He turned the knob of the door to see if it was locked, the door pushed in. His heart began to race with panic, he knew Maggie, she would never leave this door unlock, under any circumstances.

  He walked in slowly into the pitch black room, the wood creaked under his weight. He fumbled to find the light switch. “ Please be, ok.” He mumbled to himself as he
hit the lights. It took a second for his eyes to adjust, when the picture was clear, he found an empty room, with not a spec of Maggie’s belongings. “ Maggie!” He shouted louder, racing into the bedroom.

  Everything was cleared out, no bed, no sheets, just the worn out wood. Peewee was lost for words, did Maggie really just pack up and go home, had she given up all hope? He didn’t want to believe that, they both vowed to rest once they caught the person responsible for Lisa's disappearance.

  He frantically called Maggie’s cell over and over again, hoping she would pick up. “ God damn it, you just can’t leave, we made a promise.” He banged his fist on the wall as he was sent once more to voicemail. He didn’t bother to leave a message, what good would it do?

  He prowled around the place, not quite certain what he was looking for, maybe a sign that she was taken by her will. But the more he looked, the less likely it seemed. “ We were close.” He dropped to the floor, lying down onto the bug infested wood, looking up at the ceiling, pondering what was more painful, thinking she had given up on everything and headed back to L.A or she never even bother to say goodbye to him. “ I hope you found peace, my friend.” He said, closing his eyes to remember the moments they had together, even letting a tear drop down his cheek.

  Chapter 65

  Bloody Massacre

  Gusty winds, dark clouds lurking above, the sound of thunder storm in the distant. It was all out of the blue, an unforeseen force. Every news channel and papers said there was another week of heat ahead for all of New York, but that didn’t seem like the case now. Some people would call it an act of God, to Rita it was an omen of the dark times ahead, and the carnage in front of her eyes was proof enough.

  Witnesses cried and held their eyes shut to undo the image in their head, but It was the sound of the screeching crows and the noise they made as they tore the piece of flesh of the dead bodies in the alleyway that made you cringe. “ Mother of God.” Rita muttered softly as she entered the alley were cops tried their best to scare the crows off the bodies, but the birds all seem determined to pick them clean.

  “ Now fucking Cinderella shows up to the God damn ball.” Harkness shouted at her, as his head poked out of the underground basement of a towering brick apartment complex. “ Get over here!“ He kept his eyes diverted away from the crows as they swooped in to grab a chunk of meat off the body. “ Hurry, up.” He said almost heaving.

  Rita ran towards him, closing her eyes to block away the image. She grabbed onto the cold rail, until she felt Harkness. “ What the fuck happened here ?” She asked half winded.

  “ That’s not the worst part.” He gestured his head to the steel door behind him. “ I haven’t seen shit this bad in my life, just a heads up.” He warned her.

  “ What was so fucking important you had to call the boys in blue to track me down,” Rita was having a hard time keeping her vision in check, for a few seconds she was seeing double, the sound of the crows in the back weren’t helping either.

  “Look, asshole.” Harkness was in no mood to play buddy, he was carrying the load for Klecko, plus this was day five without sex. Every little thing rubbed him the wrong way. “ You came for our help, not the other way around.”

  “ I needed to clear my head, get things figured out.” She said to him.

  “Well did you?” He asked.

  Rita knew the evidence that came in proved that Pardo wasn’t involved in the killing, now the question lingered in her mind all night, who would want to mimic the same M.O as the Kingpin to throw her off her tracks. The only way they would go through that lengths was if they found out who Denise really was, perhaps she let it slip before she died. Rita did a full track on her clients before her death, there were three men who left their numbers, she was already planning in bringing them in. The last client that stood out, made a call from a payphone. So careful and crafty, this had to be someone she needed to find. Denise never left a list of where they met, she was going through phone records and text messages last made.

  The thought of letting Pardo take the fall for this crime did cross her mind. He was far from innocent, all she needed was someone to confess to him sending out the hit and he would be done. But could she really do that, let Denise true killer walk free?

  With these new turn of events it gave her enough breathing room to undo the theory of moles being under Pardo’s thumb. Even Klecko, Despite his lie, she could now put her trust in him once more. “ Yeah, we’re good.” She smiled at him, only to light a fire under his ass.

  “ Wipe the stupid smile off your face, I need you ready for this.”

  “ I can take it. “ She wasn’t sure she believed the words coming out of her mouth, but she had no other choice.

  The moment Harkness shoved open the door, the smell of dead flesh and blood came hitting your face, the scent must have reached the crows because more began to descend. There were a group of forensics investigators busy at work surveying the crime scene and bagging evidence. Rita almost fell back as she entered the room, it was all too much, there was blood drenched on the walls with cartoon figures drawn on them, like a child scribbling on their parents wall. Four bodies laid on the floor, hands cut off, half chopped legs, some gutted open like pigs. Whoever had done this, had made a game out of the victims death. “ Poor bastards, no one deserved this.” One of the forensics said as he snapped a photo of the dead body in the left corner of the room.

  “ Who did this?” Rita said holding a hand over her mouth.

  “ The two outside…” Harkness tried to shake the image out of his head. Remembering when they first received the call, they weren’t sure what they were looking at, there was just a bunch of crows pecking like starving children on something that resembled a dead pig, but the moment they inched closer, the entire picture became clear. “ Are look outs, to warn the drug peddlers in case any cops come driving up their street.”

  “ Have we I.D them?”

  “ No, hard to I.D a mutilated body like that.” Harkness rubbed his eyes.

  “ No one heard anything, a blood bath like this, someone had to hear or see something.” Rita kept her eyes to the roof.

  “ Oh, they saw something.” Harkness laughed. “ But you think anyone is going to come forward, after all this?”

  “ Do we know the time of death?” Rita asked.

  “ Going to say seven to eight hours ago.” A female forensic weighed in.

  “ And where just getting this call now.” Rita shouted at her, even though she had nothing to do with this.

  “ Pardo runs this streets with fear, people are only going to call when they leave.” Harkness laid it out for her.

  “ You said this had to do something with my case, but all I see is some dead drug ringers.” Rita could see Harkness looking towards the corner.

  “ We I.D one of the vics, “ Harkness pointed to the man laying face down in the pool of blood in the corner of the room. “ After you.“

  Rita was handed a pair of gloves by the forensics kneeling on the floor picking up samples. “ Can’t risk contaminating the scene.” She said with a phony plastered smile.

  “ Thanks.” Rita slapped on the gloves and tippy toe her way towards the body that was ripe and fresh, luckily the heat wasn’t much of a factor today, if it had there would be a bigger mess to clean up and the stench alone would have them throwing up weeks of meals.

  She knelt down to examine the body, the dead was dressed in a tacky bright yellow jumpsuit. Rita never understood the horrendous fashion sense some of these thugs had, with all the money they made, you think they would buy themselves something that shouted “ Yes, I sell drugs, but I’m marvelously dressed.”

  Her eyes loomed on the body, hoping to see anything out of the ordinary. “ What do we have here?” She lifted his arm off the floor, his wrist were bright red, most likely rope burn. “ That explains one side of the story.” She lifted the victims head to see who he was. “ Jesus..” The words exhaled out of her breath as Bobby Weaving, the
same man that she had questioned and grilled the night after Denise's death, was staring at her, with his neck sliced from ear to ear.

  “ Poor Bobby,” Harkness said as he stood behind her. “ It’s a shame, little rat never did anything to harm anyone.”

  “ Bobby is your contact, wow.” She could hear Klecko repeat those exact words a day ago “ He won’t be one for long.” Doubt began to wash over her once again. “ Bobby is a two-face liar, he’ll say anything to make himself feel important. Someone like that, it won’t be too long until he’s found dead in a pool of his own blood.” His own team members already knew Bobby's time was up.

  “ You ok?” Harkness asked as he saw her hands tremble. “ You’re not going to faint are you?”

  Rita didn’t answer, she stood up, eying Harkness for a good ten seconds without saying a word. Knowing the man in front of her couldn’t be trusted, he was in the same circle with Klecko, they all were, even her father’s old contacts, there was no safe haven for her. “ I gotta go.” She said blankly, walking over the other bodies.

  “ Hey, watch it!” The forensics team shouted at her, she shoved one of them to the ground as they tried to stop her. “ What the fuck is wrong with you?” Rita eyes darted from person to person, everyone in this room was tainted, there was nowhere Pardo's power and influence didn’t reach.

  “ Get the fuck away from me!” She screamed at them as she stormed out into the alley, running back to her car.

  “ What the fuck is going on with you!” Harkness ran after her, scaring the crows away from their meal. “ Vazquez, get back here!”

  Rita ran into her vehicle, Harkness and two other officers were running towards her, yelling at her to exit the car. She started the engine and drove straight at them in full gear, they managed to dart themselves out of the way, Harkness came a good second away from being a hood ornament.