Act V (18 page)

“
Glynnis, are you okay? You
forgot to lock your door.”

“
I guess,” she choked out
and reached for a tissue from the box she had on the floor. “You
didn’t have to come by here. I just had to go home, after I found
out. Poor Aaron.”

He eased himself down into the curve
between her knees and her shoulders and placed his warm hand on her
back rubbing it in lazy circles. When she didn’t flinch away, he
said, “I’m really sorry about your friend’s brother.”

“
His wife too,” she
sniffed.

“
You didn’t know who the
dream was about until he called you, did you?”

“
No…I didn’t know them so I
never made the connection.” She reached for another
tissue.

“
Do you know this Aaron
really well? Are you close?”

“
We’ve been working together
for several years. He’s a really nice guy.” She dabbed her eyes.
“Brice, I’ve never seen his brother. I didn’t know. I couldn’t warn
him.”

“
It’s not your
fault.”

“
I know. But it doesn’t make
this any easier.”

Brice took her hands and pulled gently.
“Come on and sit up. You need a distraction.”

She wiped her eyes. “Don’t you think
I’m distracted enough?”

“
Come on,” he encouraged,
pulling her up.

She went along with it only because she
couldn’t summon the will to argue. “Where are we going?”

He silently led her into the
bedroom and then the bathroom. It was neat but not overly so. There
were two used towels drying on the rack and a smattering of beauty
supplies on the counter. The walls were a soft reddish color that
Brice figured had to be called by some fancy name like
bordeaux
or
petit-mauve
. He set the
stopper in the tub and began pouring the water, adjusting it until
it was very warm but not unbearable. “Got any bubble
bath?”

She was completely mystified. “Yeah, in
the cabinet, but Brice, I usually just take a shower. Getting in
and out of the tub is…”

“
Not a problem. I’ll help,”
he said before she could finish and wondered why a
thirty-something, otherwise healthy woman, might have trouble with
tubs.

“
You’ll help?” She stared at
him incredulously.

“
If you need it.” He
pretended to cover his eyes, peeking through the cracks between his
fingers. “I promise not to look.”

That almost earned him a laugh. Glynnis
had to admit that a sense of humor was one of the sexiest qualities
a man could have. “You promise, do you?”

“
Yup.” He added pink bubbles
to the tub.

She shoved him out the door. “I’ll
manage on my own.”

“
You’ll call if you need
me?”

She sighed. “Sure.”

“
Good, I’ll be right outside
the door, using my imagination.”

She slammed the door shut and smiled to
herself. Maybe a nice soak would help a little.

True to his word, Brice was sitting on
her bed reading a romance novel when she stepped out of the
bathroom in a terry robe, with her hair in a towel. “Man! Didn’t
know what I’d been missing all these years,” he said indicating the
novel. “This stuff is hotter than my mama’s chili.” He set the book
down on the bed. “Feel better?”

“
Yes, a little.”

“
Any trouble with the
tub?”

“
No, not much.”

He gave her a questioning look but
didn’t ask. She’d tell him about it when she was ready. He patted
the bed beside him. “Sit.”

“
Brice, I don’t
think…”

“
Just gonna brush out your
hair. Relax.”

He grabbed a brush and the hairdryer
from her still-steamy bathroom and plugged in, positioning her in
front of him on the bed between his knees.

“
Do you even know how to use
one of those?”

“
Why do all women assume
that men are ignorant of anything having to do with personal
hygiene?”

“
Sorry, it’s just that you
surely don’t have to dry your hair with a blow-dryer. You don’t
have enough.”

“
It just so happens,” he
said over the roar of the dryer, “that my aunt Geraldine was a
cosmetologist of the first rank. Old ladies traveled for more
than
ten
miles to
have her set their hair. She insisted that I learn to wash, comb
and dry. She thought it was a useful skill for a man to
have.”

“
You’re making that
up.”

“
You may never know.” He
pulled the towel from her head and began gently tugging the brush
through her hair, trying not to pull. He didn’t speak for the whole
time he was working and his gentle brushing along with the warm air
from the dryer made Glynnis feel drowsy and comfortable.

When he finally shut the dryer off, she
slumped against his chest. “You just won the hairdresser of the
year award. Wanna come do this every day?”

Brice, who had become increasingly
uncomfortable feeling the pressure of her backside against his
legs, just laughed. “That might not be safe for either one of
us.”

She turned to face him. “Thanks, I feel
better.” Then she gave him a soft kiss. “You are just too good to
be true.”

“
Um,” he said, rising from
the bed. “I’m not
that
good. I’d better go.”

“
No,” she said, pulling him
back down onto the bed. “You’d better stay.”

Chapter 14

Addison Paddix was a mad man when it
came to background research. Just let him loose with a telephone
and a computer and see what turned up! It took him five minutes on
the computer to discover that Aaron Shultz had a bachelor’s in
theatre from Winthrop University and a master’s degree in technical
theatre from NYU. It took him ten more minutes on the phone to
discover that his transcripts from both schools revealed a heavy
emphasis on Shakespeare. “Shoot, boy!” Addy said out loud to nobody
in particular. “I would have pegged you for a redneck hayseed and
here you are with some real education. A regular, Shakespearean
scholar. Will wonders never cease?” He picked up the phone and
began calling people who knew Shultz. Time to find out what kind of
brother he was.

*****

Brice brushed one sun-kissed, brown
lock of hair off of Glynnis’ bare shoulder. Waking, she rolled
toward him on the bed, raising up on one elbow to meet his eyes.
She had such lively eyes. He reached over to feather a kiss across
her lips. “I need to leave for about an hour, but I’ll be back to
take you to dinner soon.” He ran his hand down the length of her
arm and back up again, feeling the softness of her skin. “What’s
this?” he said, brushing against a small area of roughened flesh on
her upper arm. He could see that it was slightly red and
rounded.

She rubbed the spot without looking.
“Injection site. It’s…I’ll tell you about it later. Go do what you
have to do.”

He wanted to hear now. From her tone,
he knew it was more than just an injection site. It had
significance. But he decided that just like everything with
Glynnis, she would tell him when she was ready. “Okay,” he slid to
the side of the bed and pulled on his boxers and pants. “Decide
what you want for supper. The sky’s the limit. I’ll even spring for
Mickey D’s.”

“
Go. I’ll be ready when you
get back.” She blew him a kiss.

He reached down and gave her a real
one. “Back soon.”

“
Brice?”

“
Yeah?”

“
Do you wear
Old Spice
?”

“
Sometimes. Why?”

“
Just curious.”

Brice closed the door leaving her to
think about the waking vision she’d had a few days ago when Brice
had touched her arm in the restaurant. She’d known that the killer
would find out about her and try to get rid of her, how or when,
she couldn’t say. She had instantly known it and had told Brice and
Paddix about it. Secretly, until now, she had hoped that she’d been
wrong.

But there was another part
of the vision that she hadn’t told either of them. The part about
Brice and her. This afternoon it had happened. Was it a
self-fulfilling prophecy? Had she known it would happen and
therefore caused it? She hadn’t asked Brice to show up unannounced
when she needed someone to talk to. That was all Brice. Still, she
had been the one to pull him back to her bed, knowing what the
result would be. And her feelings at that moment had been genuine.
Maybe she
had
done
this herself, fulfilled her own prophecy. But if not, how much
longer would it be before the rest of the premonition came true,
before the killer came for her?

*****

The apartment complex was set up in
quads; two up and two down. It took Brice four different apartments
before he could find anyone who was home, or at least willing to
answer the door. On the apartment directly across from the crime
scene an elderly woman wearing a flowered house dress answered. She
invited Brice in for cookies after he showed her his badge, but had
no helpful information for him. She did inform him that the nice
young man in apartment 212 seemed to spend a lot of his time
indoors with that girl. “I’m not sure they’re married,” she
whispered conspiratorially. “Young people don’t seem to get these
things done in the right order these days.” Brice suppressed a grin
as he thought about Glynnis and their recent activities.

After thanking her, he went on to the
next apartment. This one was across the parking area on the lower
floor. A teenaged boy answered the door. His jet black hair was
long and straight and fell across his almost ghostly white face.
“Yeah?”

“
Detective Gearhart with the
police department,” Brice told him, holding up a badge. “Mind if I
ask you a question or two?”

The kid looked bored.
“Whatever.”

Brice took that as a
yes
. “Were you here at the
apartment late last night, around 11p.m. or so?”

The boy scratched his head, yawned, and
gave Brice a completely deadpan expression. “Yeah.”

Your enthusiasm might just
cause heart fibrillations…better watch it,
Brice thought, Out loud, he asked, “Did you see anyone
visiting the apartment across the parking lot? Apartment number
212?”

“
Na,” he told Brice with a
yawn. Then he livened up a bit. “Wait, some guy did visit there
yesterday afternoon. I think he’s related to that dude though
‘cause he’s there a lot. They were yelling at each
other.”

Probably Aaron, he’d already
admitted to being there and fighting with his brother.
“So nobody late at night?”

“
Nobody visiting, man. Just
the pizza guy. Pretty late for pizza if you ask me
though.”

Brice’s pulse quickened. “What kind of
pizza?”

The kid seemed to think it was a quiz
show. “Um…I dunno. Pepperoni?”

Brice wanted to shake him. “What
company?”

“
Oh, let me think. Didn’t
see the car, just the hat and the pizza box.” The kid looked like
his brain might explode if he tried any harder. “Red hat, yellow
writing. Itza Pizza maybe?”

“
Can you give me a
description? How tall was he? Was he skinny, fat? What color hair
did he have?”

“
Man, I just got a quick
glance. He wasn’t fat or skinny. He was taller than me, maybe. I’m
5’8”. I don’t know any more, man. He was wearing the
hat.”

“
Just one more question. Did
the pizza guy go inside? Did he stay long?”

“
Dude, that’s two questions.
Anyway, I don’t know. I was working on a winning game of Halo. Only
got up to pee when I looked out the window and saw him. I didn’t
stick around to find out if he was invited in.”

“
Thank you very much.” Brice
took his name and knocked on a few more doors without luck before
heading back to his place for a shower and then to Glynnis’
house.

*****

“
Well, just cry me a river,”
Addison almost yelled. He was home now, still working on his
research. “Aaron, my boy, you weren’t completely straight with us,
were you?”

He tapped a few more keys and then
picked up the telephone. The switchboard at Janico was closed for
the night, but he made a note to contact them in the morning. Brice
was gonna eat this like a biscuit. He’d gobble it up and beg for
more.

*****

It had gone nicely last night. He was
resting at home as he recalled the lovely expression on her face,
the pleading, the hope when she thought that maybe he’d allow her
to live. She would have done him right there beside her dead
husband if he’d untied the gag in her mouth. Too bad.

Now it was time to plan and execute his
final masterpiece. The police were sure they had his motives
figured. Wouldn’t they be surprised? Tomorrow, he would visit the
library and borrow one of their computers and printers. Not that he
couldn’t use his own, but it wouldn’t do to have his note traced
back to him.