Dead Sure?: A Paranormal Mystery (18 page)

Dear Tim,

I hope you will take this gift from me and put it to good use. You seem like a man that could use a place to sort out his complicated thoughts.  I know this is a bit presumptuous since we just met, but I think that we have a bright relationship ahead of us, both working and maybe more.

Your New Friend.

Angela

Chapter 17
Sunday July 22
nd
, 2007

Sunday July 22
nd
, 2007

The morning sun was pouring through the floor-to- ceiling kitchen windows of the penthouse. Steve sat at the long smoked glass table, brooding over the events of the past evening. Shelby entered the room. Her freshly showered hair was slicked back and looking darker than ever. She had on a short white bathrobe with a cerulean- colored monogram.

“Are you feeling any better this morning, darling?” she said questioningly. She already knew the answer by sizing up his demeanor.

“Yes, things seem a little clearer. I appreciate you straightening things out with the police when they showed up. You know, you are really rather useful to have around.”

Useful to have around, really, is that the best he can muster up after a year of dating? Well, he’s rather useful too. When that new building of his gets completed, I’ll have a fantastic new suite of offices, and a lot of high- dollar clients nearby. Contacts he can introduce me to. Useful, what’s the matter with him, where’s madly in love, lust, and all those other great emotions? What a tool!

Shelby recognized a lot of herself in Steve. However, she couldn’t admit that she was the same personality type, a user. She would find a man, win him over, enjoy his money and gifts, get bored and move on. She had broken plenty of hearts along the way, but it never bothered her. On the contrary, Shelby never thought twice about it.

Now, she had a man that didn’t follow in the classic pattern. Sure, he showered her with gifts, and took her to upscale places, but Steve was no plaything. She had yet to feel that, she had even a little bit of control over him. Perhaps the thrill of the hunt kept this guy interesting. Her relationships didn’t often last this long. If she had been able to win him over, boredom would set in and it would be time for the next man. Even though she was a psychologist, she rarely turned her training and powers of observation on herself, and these honest rationalizations stayed just below the surface of her busy psyche.

“It was pretty difficult to calm the police down. Nothing like a shots fired call to bring them in with their hackles up.”

“It was really quite brilliant of you to convince the officers that I was upset about the newscast on the bank building. Telling them that I was on an anti-depressant which reacted badly with the alcohol I had consumed worked superbly. The icing on the cake came when you casually slipped a thousand dollars into each of their pockets. The sexy way you did it, really finished the job. I sure don’t need any additional troubles or scandals right now.”

If she only knew the half of it, some of the men I am working with would not be happy at all to have the law sniffing around. I have to get this new building finished and make good on my obligations.

“Thanks, Steve, a girl always loves a compliment,” she stated quite truthfully.
Brilliant, now that’s more like it. It certainly sounds better than useful.

“Shelby, I’m not feeling like brunch today. I think I had enough champagne last night. I’m going to go for a run, and then head down to the office to take care of some paperwork. Let’s plan on dinner tonight.”

“That’s fine, I have some things to get done myself. Let’s say six p.m. at Fong’s Palace. I am really craving their house special.”

*    *    *

Rene woke up, her head aching, as the morning sunshine slipped through the slits of her living room blinds, hitting her in the face. Squinting, she looked around, feeling thoroughly confused. She was in her underwear and a half-buttoned blouse, lying on the living room couch. Her mouth felt like it had cotton balls stuffed in it. On the coffee table there was an unopened bottle of wine.

Sitting up slowly, her foot knocked over a short glass that had been sitting on the floor next to the couch. Ice and cold liquid splashed on her foot, and the smell of brandy reached her nose.
What the hell?
She bent over and picked up the glass, smelling it again as if she didn’t believe it.
I don’t remember drinking this. Come to think of it, I can’t remember anything past making out with Jack,
a small smile tried to fight its way past her lips,
and going to get a bottle of wine. There’s the bottle unopened, what happened? It seemed like things were going so well. Why can’t I remember? This is really starting to scare me. Am I losing my mind, so many strange things keep happening?

Slowly, she got up and headed off to get a towel. This drinking and not remembering stuff was really disturbing her. This was the second time in two days that she had awoken to find partially drunken hard liquor laying around, and where did the booze come from? Every day she felt like she was slipping deeper into the dumps. Rene longed to feel more like herself again; the glass is half full, easy going, happy with what she has kind of person.

Maybe it will help me relieve some of this funk if I call Jack, and find out what happened. That’s assuming he knows. Just seeing the one glass doesn’t make me feel very optimistic, but it never hurts to try. Never hurts to try, a good positive thought. Now, that’s more like it, Rene,
she thought encouragingly.

Rene retrieved her purse and began to dig out her cell phone, noticing in the process that her car keys were nowhere to be found. She turned the lining inside-out, dumping the contents all over the kitchen table. Where were her keys? She had a sneaking suspicion she knew. A sort of memory came to mind, almost, it was very vague and not quite fashioned. The hazy recollection consisted of driving around, and then placing the keys on her desk upon returning home.

Tentatively, she walked to the guest bedroom and looked inside. The desk sat open, and there sat the keys lying in plain view. How she knew they would be here, she couldn’t explain.

Trying to keep her slight bit of earlier optimism alive, she headed back into the kitchen, and picked up the cell phone. Surely there was a logical explanation for all of this, and Jack could just possibly help her piece last night together.

*    *    *

The cell phone rang in one of the many standard ring tones that Jack normally cycled through, as he got bored with one. He had just gotten up and was busy brushing his teeth. He wasn’t really expecting any calls, so his first thought was to ignore it. The cell rang several more times insistently, and finally Jack gave up trying to ignore it.

Spitting out his toothpaste, he used the hand towel to wipe off the rest, which was running down his chin. He grinned momentarily thinking about how it always drove the ladies crazy when he left big toothpaste streaks on the towel. “Those are for drying your hands, and shouldn’t be covered with crusted up toothpaste,” they would say.  They were probably right, but sometimes it was fun to be just a little difficult. Ladies always like guys that are a bit of a project, at least that’s what his father used to say.

Picking the phone up off the night stand, he blurted out a cheerful, “Hello”.

“Good morning, Jack, it’s Rene,” she said trying her best to sound cheerful as well.

“Oh, what do you want? Maybe you would like to invite me over, so you can throw me out again. If you weren’t happy with how the evening was going, you could have politely asked me to leave. I don’t appreciate the way you treated me at all.” He tried to contain the anger in his voice, but his tone was just slightly off from yelling.

“Jack, I’m sorry. I don’t even know what you are talking about. The last thing I remember, we were having a good time on the couch. I got up to get some wine, and you were gone. The reason I’m calling is to ask why you left, if you did leave, or if we went out again? I really can’t remember a thing,” she stated, her voice conveying sincerity and stress.

After hearing her voice, his tone softened some. “You’re really telling me that you don’t remember a thing about throwing me out? Nothing at all about yelling at me to get out NOW!”

“I actually did that? Jack, I’m so sorry. I was having a fantastic evening. You might not want to hear it right now, but you’re a great kisser. I’d like to make it up to you. How about, let me see… Can you hold for a second, my regular phone is ringing? Just one second.”

“Hello,” she said in a rushed voice.

“Rene, great, you’re there! It’s me, Liam, I need to see you, it’s urgent. I’m getting discharged from the hospital. I need a ride home, and a friend to talk too. Can you come right away, please?” Liam sounded desperate.

Rene was friends with Liam, but was a little surprised to be the one he called in case of an emergency. “Sure, Liam, Ummm, give me about twenty minutes to throw some clothes on and get over there.”

“Great, thanks, Rene, I knew I could count on you.”

“Jack, you still there? Something just came up, I’ll have to call you back later.”

“Whatever, give me a call when you get a chance,” and with that he ended the call abruptly. Jack’s irritation with Rene was only mildly better.
Can’t even finish a phone call with that girl without something coming up. I don’t even know why I bother. I should just find me some new hotty, like that girl in the Cobra, and go back to my old ways. Things were much simpler that way.

And with that, he went back to brushing his teeth, all kinds of thoughts racing through his mind.

*    *    *

True to her word, about twenty minutes later Rene arrived at Mercy Hospital. She found Liam sitting in the lobby. His face was so sad; it was drooping like a Basset hound. Upon sighting her, his countenance changed immediately, a look of relief spreading across his features.

“Rene, I’m so glad you came. Thank you, thank you, I didn’t know who else to turn to. I desperately need someone to talk to.”

“Liam, are you okay? What happened, and how can I help?” Underneath it all, Rene was secretly glad to be distracted with someone else’s problems for awhile. Maybe Liam’s troubles could be defined and fixed, unlike hers which seemed so intangible that she couldn’t imagine a solution.

“I don’t want to talk about it here. Can you give me a ride to my house, and we’ll talk about it there?”

“Sure, we can do that,” Rene answered empathically.

*    *    *

Fifteen minutes later, the yellow Beetle pulled into the driveway of Liam’s house. It was a small older-style bungalow home in a quiet neighborhood. The yard was somewhat overgrown, the bushes and trees looked like they had never been trimmed.

After entering the house, the outside began to look good, maybe even well kept. There was barely any room to walk, just a small path a couple of feet wide that lead through all of the clutter.

“Come, on Rene, we’ll go into the kitchen and have some coffee.”

As she followed him, she couldn’t take her eyes off the bandages on the back of his neck. She was very curious as to what happened, and what type of story this strange man was going to tell. Liam was usually incredibly private about anything personal, preferring to keep his stories focused on the past and his antique store.

They continued to follow the path through the living room and dining room into the kitchen area. There Liam motioned towards a small kitchen table, half covered with odds and ends. There were two chairs that weren’t buried, and they proceeded to sit down. Liam, apparently forgetting about the coffee, launched directly into his story.

“Saturday night I was still so upset about the bank building demolition project getting the green light that I was roaming around aimlessly. Mostly, I was walking around the downtown even after dark, which is something I normally wouldn’t do. I like to stay in when it gets dark and curl up with good book, or look through my treasures,” he said, motioning around the room with a flourished hand gesture. “Aren’t they wonderful?” he asked, temporarily smiling and looking as if he had drifted a million miles away.

“Liam, you were saying something about wondering around downtown...” Rene prompted.

“Oh, yes,” he began a more somber look returning to his pale visage. “I kept finding myself drawn to walk past the Old Horner bank building. I circled the block several times, always drawn to it, over and over again. The last time though, I noticed something different. The side door was ajar, just a little bit. I don’t know what came over me, but I went in.” Liam was now wringing his hands; a worried look furrowed his brow.

“Liam, I have to say you have truly piqued my curiosity with this story. What happened next?”

“This is where things started to go bad fast. I just couldn’t seem to stop myself. I kept going in farther and farther, until I got to the stairs. That’s when it hit me, what the hell was I doing? Before I could get out, the door slammed shut. I tried and tried to get it open, but nothing worked.” His voice was sounding stressed now. It was clear that the event was still fresh in his mind and extremely terrifying.

“Take a deep breath, you’re okay. Whatever it was is over now,” Rene said, in voice barely above a whisper.

After a few seconds, Liam managed to regain some of his composure and continued the story. “I started trying to feel my way around the stairwell, looking for a door to the main hall. The next thing I knew, there was an excruciating pain in the back of my head or my neck, I’m not exactly sure which. Everything went black, that’s hard to describe when everything was already so dark.” Stopping, he hopped up from the table and walked towards the kitchen cupboards. “How about that coffee I promised you?”