and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) (4 page)

CHAPTER
SIX

At Spencer House there
were three work shifts for nurses, as opposed to most hospitals, that have only
two.  The morning shift was from 8 am to 4 pm, and that would be Martina’s
schedule for the first four weeks, as it was with all new hires for orientation
purposes, starting Monday.  After that, she was told, anything could happen,
depending on the need and shifts available.  Marti, however, was okay with that
and actually preferred the less desirable swing and graveyard shifts, because
things were always less hectic after visitors hours.  It was the five day delay
before starting that concerned her now.  She didn’t handle days off well and
actually preferred to be at work.  But, as she was told, the signature uniforms
she was measured for wouldn’t arrive before then anyway.  And it would give her
time to see more of St. Louis, and even East St. Louis, across the bridge in
case she, by chance, got homesick for Illinois again. 

Gloria’s apartment, as
it turned out, was only a block from the Spencer House, and they went there
right after her shift was up at five.  It was an older building without an
elevator, however, and she lived on the sixth floor.  With five flights of
stairs facing her at least twice each day, no wonder Gloria stayed so trim,
Marti thought on the way up.

The apartment itself,
though small, consisted of two bedrooms and had a second bath on the side Marti
would occupy, if she chose to move in.

“Well, what do you
think?” Gloria asked, after a quick tour.

“Oh, I just love it! 
It’s so quaint.  And you have it decorated so beautifully.”  Martina buzzed
about, trying to take it all in.  “I won’t move in, though, unless you let me
share in the rent while I’m here.”

“That won’t be
necessary.  I’m sure you’ll be tired of me in a month or so and want to find
your own place, anyway.” 

“I doubt that.”  Marti
continued to look around.  “So how much is the rent?”

“It’s eighty-five a
month, all utilities paid.  Which I don’t think is so bad, considering it’s
close to work.”

“Not at all,” Marti
said, looking over the counter at the small, only one person could fit in at a
time, kitchen.  “Okay, then I’ll pay half.”

“Dinky, isn’t it?” 
Gloria laughed. 

“Quite!”  Martina
laughed with her.  “So what do you say?”

“Look, Martina, I’d be
glad to have you just for the company.  It gets awful boring here alone,
especially on my days off.  Why don’t you just try it for a month and see how
you like it before taking on half the lease?  That way you’ll have received
your first paycheck and things will be easier for you.”

“I have plenty saved up
to get me by, Gloria.  And if I wasn’t here, I’d be paying at the hotel
anyway.”

“Well, okay.  If you
insist.”

“Great!” Marti quickly
went to her with a hug.  “Here we are roommates, and I don’t even know your
last name.”

“Which one?”  Gloria
smiled.  “Don’t forget, I’ve been married three times.  Apparently they’re
tired of the name changes over at Spencer House.  It’s been a year since my
last divorce and they still don’t have my new name tag.  That’s why I don’t
wear one.  My maiden name is Gillen.  At least that’s the one they’re putting
on my paychecks nowadays.”

“I like it.  Good, now
I know.  Gloria Gillen.”

“Gloria Jane Gillen, if
you must know.  Growing up my mother drove me nuts with Gloria Jane.  Never one
name or the other — always together.  Gloria Jane, clean up your
room!  Or, Gloria Jane, do your homework!”

“Better than being
called Spider.”  Martina laughed.  “That was the nickname they pinned on me in
high school.”

“Why?” 

“Oh, Gloria, I was so
gosh awful gangly it was pitiful.  I never had one date, all four years.  I
think my folks were even ashamed of me.”

“Oh, my!”  Gloria
covered her mouth, astonished.  “What happened?  I mean you’d never know by
looking at you now.  You finally filled out, obviously.”

“My mother said it
would happen someday, and it did, thank God!”

“Yes.  Thank God.  Now,
looking at yourself, you must feel it was worth the wait.”

“You don’t go through
what I did… all the teasing and ridicule… and walk away without some scarring. 
But I’m better now.  My confidence and self-esteem are improving steadily. 
This move to St. Louis has done wonders already.”

“Well, good for you! 
You just keep it up, sweetie.”  Gloria took her in for a hug.  “Now that you’ve
decided, let’s go get your things from the hotel.  Okay?”

“Okay!”  Marti swiped
some tears from her eyes.  She was paid up for the day and could have stayed
again tonight, but figured it just as well she get it over with.

Out in the hall while
Gloria locked the door, Martina spotted a small door on the wall.  “What’s
that?”

“It’s a dumbwaiter.” 
Gloria opened it to expose the ropes and shaft that went to the bottom floor. 
“It’s for bringing up groceries.  Beats lugging them up the stairs.  You have
to be careful, though; last week I lost a quart of milk somewhere along the
way.”

“Somebody stole it?”

“I don’t know where
else it could have gone.  Everything else was there when I brought it up.”  She
laughed.  “It only happened that once, though.”

“Wow!” Marti said,
wondering who would have done such a thing as the two of them moved along. 

Then about half way
down the five flights of stairs it dawned on Marti that her moving in may put a
crimp in Gloria’s lifestyle.  Just because Gloria wasn’t married any longer
didn’t mean she was going without regular, or even occasional, sex.

“Gloria?”

“Yes, dear.  What?”

“I just want you to
know how much I appreciate you doing this.  If it weren’t for you I’d probably
be somewhere farther up the road by now.  So if you’re ever in need of some
privacy, just tell me and I’ll disappear… even if it means I spend the night in
a hotel.”

“Why would I need
privacy?”

“You know.  In case you
have a lover or something.”

Gloria laughed.  “That
won’t happen.  Not in the apartment, anyway.”

Satisfied with that,
Marti said no more until they got to the street.  “Well, if it ever happens, my
offer still stands.”

With that Gloria
stopped walking and turned to face her.  “Okay, Martina, just so you don’t get
the wrong idea about me, I do have a lover.  But you’ll never see him, okay? 
He’ll never come to the apartment, nor will you ever see us together,
anywhere.”  Having said that, Gloria continued on.

“Is he invisible?”
Marti said, as a joke.

Gloria laughed.  “Yes,
he’s invisible.”

“Is he married?”

“I won’t answer that.”

“I think you already
have.”

“Okay, Martina, he’s
married.  But it’s not like you think.  This is not something that’s apt to
break up a marriage.  We get what we need from each other, and that’s it.  We
have absolutely nothing else in common.  We don’t even like the same music. 
Hell, we don’t even like each other.”

“Oh, my!”

“Yeah.  Oh my!”  Gloria
laughed again.

Martina got her things
from the hotel into her car in the hotel parking lot, and then the two of them
walked on to Hannity’s as was previously planned.  On the way through to the
back, Marti kept an eye out for Parker Thomas.  She really didn’t expect to see
him, however, since it had only been three hours since he’d left the bar, and
he was pretty exhausted.  Most likely he was at home catching up on his sleep.

“Hey, did you hear the
one about the Rabi that does circumcisions, just for tips?” Lenny came up as
they seated themselves.

Gloria erupted with a
throaty laugh.  Martina, however, remained confused as to what was so funny…

“What are we having
today, girls?”  Lenny quickly asked, fearing, by her expression, he had
offended Martina.

“I don’t get it,” Marti
finally said, looking back and forth to the two of them for an explanation.

“Okay, you’re a nurse
right?” Lenny said.

“I am,” Martina went
along.

“So then you know what
a circumcision is?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s left over
afterward?”

“Foreskin?” Marti said,
blankly and looked to the two of them, again.  Then, like a light went on in
the room, it dawned on her.  “Oh, my God!  Tips!  I can’t believe I’m so dumb.”

This time they all
laughed.  That is, until Martina sobered again and asked, “But why does the
Rabi want them?  I always thought those things were discarded.”

This, of course,
brought even more laughter form Lenny and Gloria, again leaving Martina
awaiting an answer, if there was one to be had.

“Oh God, bring us a
bottle of champagne, Lenny,” Gloria gasped.  “We’re celebrating Martina’s new
job.  She’s now officially a Spenhonur!”

“A what?” Marti asked. 
“Don’t tell me this is going to make me look stupid again?”

“No, honey.  It stands
for Spencer House Nurse — Spen-Ho-Nur,” Gloria explained.

“Oh!  I don’t know if I
like being called that.”  Marti was un-amused.

“Well, honey, there are
some things in life that are just unavoidable.  You’ll hear it often among the
staff over there, so you’d best get used to it.”

“You want the good
stuff or the el-cheapo?” Lenny asked.

“Give us the good
stuff, Lenny,” Gloria responded.  “I’m buying.”

“Spenhonur!”  Martina
wrinkled her nose in distaste. 

ABOUT
A MONTH LATER

July,
1955

CHAPTER
SEVEN

The first four weeks at
Spencer House were a breeze for Marti.  She not only loved the job, she adored
the other nurses she’d met on four of the floors she spent time on.  The only
problem was, she would be leaving them and moving on to the four pm to midnight
shift starting Monday.

Gloria was disappointed
as well.  She had become accustomed to the two of them having similar hours. 
Now it would be like living alone again, Martina being at work while she was
off, and vice versa.  Otherwise, they would both be sleeping.  But they would
have the weekends together, at least for a while.

Gloria had offered to
talk to Scott Harris about it, but Martina asked her not to.  It was against
her nature to accept special treatment of any kind.  Besides, if she was ever
to know the entire workings of Spencer House, which was her desire, the gamut
of possibilities would need to be experienced. 

In the month Marti had
been here, she had not been assigned operating room duty once.  But that was
soon to change, Mary Greer promised, starting immediately.  From now on, any emergency
or previously unscheduled surgery during her shift would include her.

Once Marti’s last day
shift was over Friday afternoon, she passed by Gloria’s desk in the lobby on
the way out of the building.  She had changed out of her uniform in the nurse’s
locker room and was now on her way to Hannity’s.

“I’ll be a little late
today, Martina,” Gloria said.  “But you have fun.  I’ll see you there in a
couple of hours, okay?”

“Sure.  See you then.” 
Marti walked away with the feeling something wasn’t quite right, but something
like this happened about once a week, and again she let it pass without
question.

Entering Hannity’s, she
made her way to the back, paying little attention to the regular crowd that
gathered near the front.  Seeing the middle-aged blond bartender, whose name
she had learned just last week, was on duty, Marti ordered a Budweiser on the
way past. 

Selecting a stool near
the end of the bar, she sat her purse down and seated herself.  The beer came
directly thereafter. 

“Thanks, Summer.”

“It’s on the man down
the bar, honey.”  Everybody was honey to Summer.  Marti had noticed that over
the past month of coming in after work near every day.

Easing her eyes in that
direction, only one face looked familiar.  And she actually had to study that
one for a moment before figuring out who he was.  It was then he pushed away
from the group there and walked toward her.

“Hello, Doc.”

“Parker!  Is that
you?” 

“In the flesh.”

“Where have you been?” 
She smiled, amazed at how much better he looked cleaned up, and said so.  “You
look spiffy.”

“So do you, Doc,” he
said, returning the smile.  “Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve
been out since I saw you last.  We have been going near non-stop at work.”

“Maybe you ought to
find another line of work then,” Marti suggested and took a drink of her beer.

“Miss me?” he said,
leaning in to face her, putting his arms on the bar.

“How can I miss someone
that doesn’t exist?  At least no one here seems to know who Parker Thomas is!” 
She reached over and squeezed his muscular arm.  “Just checking!”

“So, you did miss me?” 
He laughed.

“Well, I wasn’t going
out of my way to save my virginity for you, if that’s what you want to know.” 
Marti laughed with him. 

“You know, if you would
have asked for McLean, you’d have fared better.  Most everybody here knows me
by that.”

Marti was confused.  “I
thought your name was Parker Thomas?”

“Parker Thomas McLean,”
he clarified.  “In college they called me Mister Clean.  But, that may partly
have been because I wore my hair clipped short for football.”

“Mister Clean it is
then.”  She tapped her bottle to his, sitting on the bar, and took a drink.

“Oh, no!  I’m not going
back to…  Look Doc, you can call me anything you want, just not that, okay?”

Marti laughed.  “Why
not?” she teased.  “I like it.”

Parker was fun to chat
with, but when seven pm rolled around, Marti was getting a little hungry and
wondered what had delayed Gloria.

Seeing her check her
watch, Parker asked, “Is there somewhere you have to be?”

“Not exactly.  It’s
just that I’m getting a little hungry and…”

“Let me take you
somewhere nice and buy you dinner,” he offered.  “What kind of food do you
like?”

“That’s a really
generous offer, Parker.  Thank you.  But I have a friend that’s supposed to
meet me here,” Marti said concernedly and again looked toward the door.

“Should I disappear,
Doc?”

“Why?”  She glanced up
to him — saw the disappointment on his face.  “Oh, no!  It’s my
roommate, silly.  I’m sure she’ll be along any minute.”

“Well, since you can’t
leave, then at least let me buy you one of Hannity’s World Famous, guaranteed
to bust a gut if you eat it all, Sausage Dogs.”  Parker laughed.

“I will if you share it
with me.”

“What will it be then:
cheese, chili, kraut, half kraut — half chili, chili cheese, or the
works?” he read from the menu on the wall.

“I haven’t tried the
works.”  Marti acquired a puzzled look. 

“Are you feeling
adventurous, Doc?” Parker made a point of looking into her sparkling hazel
eyes.

“I am!”  Martina
giggled, something she hadn’t done in years, and it surprised her.  And she
was
feeling adventurous, at least where Parker was concerned.  Now she wondered
where all of this would eventually lead.

Lenny thought better of
saying his usual, “spread’em wide,” when delivering the near foot long sausage
on an enormous bun, topped with everything including onions and pickle wedges. 
He didn’t want to risk embarrassing Martina in the presence of her newfound
friend.  In all Lenny’s years of being a bartender, he had become astute at
spotting newly acquainted couples from the careful attention they paid each
other.  And the affection displayed thus far between these two told him a
romance was definitely brewing. 

Putting out forks and
napkins, Lenny, finding he couldn’t help himself did, however, say, “Eat it, or
beat it!”

Hearing this, Parker
glanced to Marti.  She seemed not to notice, but rather busied herself at
picking onions off the divided half of the sausage dog closest to her, on a
single platter.

Seeing their beers were
near drained, without asking, Lenny brought fresh ones.  “These are on me,
kiddos.”  His eyes produced a Santa Claus twinkle.

“Now, can you
beat
that?” Marti said, with a sheepish smile to let them both know, even with her
mind being on extreme hunger, worry over Gloria’s prolonged absence, and the
notion she may soon be giving up her virginity, she wasn’t completely absent of
her surroundings. 

This brought amused
laughter from both men, as she smartly took the first bite.

When eight o’clock
rolled around and Gloria still hadn’t showed, Marti was beside herself.  As of
now, Gloria was two hours later than she had ever been before when delayed. 
Then, as if by some miracle, she came strolling up.

“Hi!” she said, as if
trying to sound cheerful.

Marti noticed
immediately that Gloria was not only wearing a different outfit than what she
had on at work, but her hair was brushed differently and she wore strange
sunglasses that hid her eyes near completely.

“Gloria, where have you
been?  I was worried!”  Martina came off the stool and embraced her friend. 
Close up she noticed a red mark on her forehead the brushed down hair was
obviously meant to hide.  “Oh my God!  What happened?”  She reached to finger
aside the hair.

Gloria, seeing what was
about to occur, pushed away.  “It’s nothing, really.  I was reaching for some
high boxes at work and they fell on me.  I’ll be fine.”

Being there wasn’t an
available stool, Parker hopped off his and guided Gloria onto it.

“Thank you,” she said,
giving him just a glance.

“Gloria, that
gentleman’s name is Parker,” Marti said, still looking Gloria over, just
knowing she must be hiding more damage beneath the shades and God only knows
where else.  And why the change of clothes?  Had there been bleeding?

“Are you two…” Gloria’s
finger went back and forth between Marti and Parker, who was now standing at
Marti’s back, “
friends
?”

With that, Marti looked
to Parker and said, “Yes.  I guess we are friends…”  She smiled broadly back to
Gloria.

“Now, that calls for a
celebration.”  Gloria whirled to catch Lenny’s eye down the bar.

“No Gloria.  Not yet!”
Marti was quick to say.  Somehow Gloria must have mistakenly assumed her and Parker
had popped the cork on her virginity.  That, of course, had not happened.  And
as much as she wanted it to, it probably wouldn’t for a while.  She barely knew
the man.  Nor could it have happened.  And Gloria should have known that, since
she had hardly been out of her sight since moving into her apartment, except
for the few hours today.

Gloria then responded
with, “Oh!” and seemed a bit disoriented.  “Well, when then?  What are you two
waiting for?”

“Gloria, please!” 
Marti flashed Parker a concerned look and turned back to Gloria.  “I think I
ought to get you home.  I don’t think you’re well, dear.”

“I am feeling a bit
woozy,” Gloria said, touching her brow.  “Maybe just one drink first.”

This entire exchange
had left Parker McLean totally confused and looking blankly to each of them for
some sort of explanation.  That, of course, never came.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Entering the apartment
at ten, Gloria said, “You should have stayed with your friend.  He wanted you
to.  I could tell.”

“I’m going to dinner
with him tomorrow night,” Marti replied.  “You’re welcome to come along if you
want?  Parker made a point of extending that offer.  He’s such a gentleman.”

“No, you go ahead.  I’m
not tagging along on your date like some big sister.”  Gloria turned both locks
on the door behind them and attached the chain for added security.

Marti watched her do
it, then asked, “Now, do you want to tell me what really happened to you
earlier?”

“I’m afraid I don’t
know what you’re talking about, Martina,” Gloria said and abruptly headed off
for her bedroom.

“That story you told
about the boxes just doesn’t add up.”  Marti followed her in.  “And why do you
still have those silly sunglasses on?”

“Get out, Martina!” 
Gloria turned just inside the room and reached to close the door.

That was when Martina
saw the dress Gloria had worn to work that day in a pile on the bedroom floor
and picked it up for closer examination.  “What’s this!” she said, noticing
immediately it was in shreds, as if violently ripped from her body.  “Did the
falling boxes do this as well?”  She held the dress out to her.

With that, Gloria
climbed onto her bed, flopped on her back, pulled a pillow over her face and
began to cry.

Feeling bad now for
what she’d done, Marti sat on the edge of the bed, reached out, and gently
touched Gloria’s arm.  “If there’s a mad man out there, then we need to call
the police.”

“No.  I can’t do
that.”  Gloria pulled away from her touch, as if pained by it.

“Why not?”

“Because he’ll kill me
if I do that!” Gloria exclaimed, and sat up onto the edge of the bed.

“Do you know him?”

“Of course I know him! 
He’s my most recent ex.”

“So that’s your
mysterious lover?  Your ex?  Why, Gloria?”

“Because he said after
the divorce that if I didn’t continue to have regular sex with him, he would
see to it nobody ever wanted me again.  And as a down payment on that threat,
he knocked out one of my teeth.  It cost me five hundred dollars to get a
replacement.”

“Oh my God!” Martina
screamed and covered her mouth in shock.  “So what set him off, today?”

“I told him I didn’t
want to see him anymore.  I said I’d tell his new wife if he persisted.” 
Gloria removed the sunglasses exposing two very black and blue eyes.