Hazards on the Hardwood (Hazards and Hijinks) (18 page)

32

Sasha had her own dancing dilemmas to face. “With Raul out of the picture, whom shall I get for a partner now?” She thought as she waited for her coffee to brew. “I know there’s someone out there that might have some serious dancing skills. I just have to find him.”

Then it hit her, there was a man, a few years back that was dashing, debonair and downright handsome…Landon Mills!

His name made her heart beat a little faster than the caffeine in her early morning coffee.
What did she remember about him?
She asked herself.

Landon Mills…Sasha was pretty confident that he had danced in the same circles at competitions in the past. She needed to find her old dance rosters and programs. She headed to her storage closet…she was on a mission!

Digging through box after box of dance memorabilia and dusty files, she located a rather tattered container of her old dance competition programs. Filing through the wrinkled and folded papers, there it was! She’d found a couple of competition rosters from several years ago. She eagerly thumbed through each one carefully; they were fragile and could easily tear just being held in her trembling fingers. Looking through the time-worn pages she found something that caught her eye; a name jumped off the page, along with a dated picture…Landon Mills! There it was; his handsome face staring back at her in black and white.

He’d had a partner she was not familiar with back then; not a name that she knew. He’d taken fourth place in fox trot and quick step.
Not bad!
She thought. She kept rifling through the old pieces of paper and found another program. She had to laugh as she saw “Raul Griffith and Sasha O’Neill” listed as competitors for the Latin division title. She snickered as she thought about what had happened at that particular competition.
It wasn’t pretty!
She recalled.

Memories of that dance disaster raced through her brain. Why had she listened to Raul as he talked about how skilled he was at the Jive? He was horrendous; an absolute fright! She had been doing her kick step and his right foot came up at the most unfortunate time and caught in her spangled outfit and they whirled around, lost their balance and took out not one…but two other couples as they crashed not so gracefully to the hardwood floor. It was a complete fiasco! She didn’t speak to Raul for days after that episode.

Landon’s name kept coming up in her mind and she figured it was a sign of some kind. “What was his last address?” She thought as she picked up a program and put it neatly back in the box.

She decided to go online and see if his name came up on Facebook or any of the other social networking sites. There was a Landon Mills on Facebook and it showed his hometown as Las Vegas. She remembered Nicholas had mentioned that Landon was from Vegas. She was pretty confident this was the correct Landon Mills.

“Now I just need to see if there is an email address listed and try to contact him, see if he remembers me and maybe there would even be a chance of a partnership on the dance floor.” She said hopefully with a big smile on her face.

Sophie saw her sister’s face light up but after their recent discussion, she wasn’t sure if she should approach her. But after a moment she broke down and asked, “Why the big smile sis?”

“I think I have found a possible solution to my dancing dilemma. Do you remember that guy Nicholas mentioned from Vegas? Nicholas also said that Landon was headed this way to be with his sister and her husband. I am going to try to contact him via email and see if there’s even a remote possibility of him as a possible partner at the competition…freeing Raul the Great up to dance with you! I just hope this plan isn’t considered too forward to the handsome Mr. Mills.” Half sarcastic; half genuine, Sasha looked at her sister waiting for a response.

“I do recall that name, but it’s been so long. Do you really think there’s a chance that he’d remember you and that he would agree to dancing with you? That would be awesome!” Sophie never could play games, she was always whole-heartedly genuine and her face showed it all.

“Okay then…first things first; I will email him and see if I get a response.” She typed in the email address and when it came up she typed in the subject: “From Sasha O’Neill, Friend of Nicholas Kincaid” – hopeful that it didn’t land in his spam folder. Then she began the message, “My name is Sasha O’Neill and I’m a friend of Nicholas Kincaid. He is the person that warned us about Willie O’Brien, my sister’s ex. That situation, by the way, is resolved for now, so I won’t go into that. I was wondering if you might email me back so that I can explain my situation in more detail. Sasha O’Neill.” She hit enter and sent the message off into cyberspace.

Now all she could do was wait.

33

The Lakeside Dance Competition was drawing closer, the fifth of February and things were heating up even though it was the coldest winter on record. The judges were sorting through the entry forms looking for “class A” dancing profiles. “What about this couple?” Judge Fallon Middleton asked.

“Taffy Torkelson and Nicholas Kincaid? Wait a minute, I remember both of them and this is a new pairing. Originally on the dancing circuit Taffy danced with Francois LaRue and Nicholas danced with that delightful Caroline Smathers creature now Caroline and Francois are paired up, as well.” Another judge, James Collins, said looking absently at the entry forms.

“Well it seems more than two couples have changed partners on the dance floor this year. Sasha O’Neill is paired with Landon Mills and her old flame, Raul Griffith, is taken to tripping the light fantastic with Sasha’s sister, Sophie O’Brien. What a strange bunch of people.” Judge Middleton laughed; the other judges taking their turn at commenting on the partner switching going on.

“What about Sparky and Edward Haversham? Are they entered this year?” Asked Judge Kendall Moore.

“Yes I believe they were late entries as well. Something happened to Edward early on and he ended up in the hospital for a bit of a spell but everything seems to be okay now.” One of the other judges commented.

“Ah well it looks like it may prove to be a very interesting dance competition; all this moving around, partner to partner stuff adds a great dynamic and may keep our audience enthralled, as well.” Commenting enthusiastically, Fallon Middleton got up from his chair and walked over to the coffee pot and poured another cup.

“I dare say we will have some new thrills and spills to give the audience a real treat!” Judge Collins said as he poured another cup.

“Well let’s continue through these entries; hey, anyone want to order take-out?” Asked Judge Middleton.

“You paying?” Judge Moore asked with a broad smile.

The session went on for several more hours of selecting and rejecting entries. The judges thought they had a great bunch of dancing contestants and settled on twelve couples for each division. It was going to be an exciting and fun-filled evening.

As he was walking out to a taxi, Judge Middleton felt a tug at his coat, looked around and saw a hunched-over, hooded gentleman running down the street. He reached inside his pocket and found a wrinkled piece of paper. He opened it and read, “You will vote for the Havershams or else suffer the consequences and DO NOT call the cops or your life will be over!” No signature; very poor penmanship.

“What is the name of?” Judge Middleton broke out in a cold sweat. He quickly put the piece of paper back in his pocket and looked frantically around in every direction. His heart was about to jump out of his chest. He climbed into the taxi and headed home, going over in his mind what to do. “Don’t call the cops? Why would a person threaten my life over a dance competition?” The thoughts kept coming. The judge trembled as he watched the skyline of New York pass rapidly through the water-smeared windows of the cab.

Reaching home, he paid the driver, climbed out of the cab and quickly let himself in his brownstone. He double-bolted the door; took off his coat and made his way to his study. He had a bottle of brandy sitting on the wet bar next to his bookshelf. He poured a shot and sat in his soft leather chair and thought about what had just happened.

Wanting to reach for his phone and call the local police, he sat there drinking and thinking about the threat on his life. How could this have happened? He didn’t care who won or lost; it was all about the social aspect, the gorgeous ladies and the press releases with his name listed, fame --
if but only for a moment
. His law degree left behind, his current path, as a real estate tycoon, was how he earned this fine elegant brownstone and all that came with it. Dancing was just a sideline; an interest of his since he was involved in cotillions and exhibitions as a young man.

Family money, a budding law career plus his real estate holdings had built a fine financial portfolio for the judge. He had a heart full of pride and a bank account full of money;
what more could he possibly want?

Well there was one thing that he kept secretly in his heart; the love of a beautiful dancer who left him long ago, but he kept hope alive. She would’ve been his wife if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his large amount of stock holdings that were about to tank. He chose redistributing those funds to an offshore account rather than take the time to encourage her during a severe illness. She recovered from the sickness but not from the gaping hole he left in her heart.

Sparky Farnum had loved the judge when he was still a lawyer, after he had passed the bar, and before love of everything money-related took over all his senses. She was stunning, he recalled. Dancing with her was all he thought about back then. A fashionable, stylish lady was the image his mind brought up as he sat there thinking about the emptiness that followed their horrendous break-up. She’d come down with some kind of horrible virus and required hospitalization. Fallon dabbled in his financial opportunities, drinking in his huge wealth; his lovely Sparky feeling deserted, recovered from her illness and built up her strength through swimming and dancing.  She moved on and filed Fallon away in the dim recesses of her hurt heart and mind.

That’s when she met…HIM…Edward Haversham. Once she was out of Fallon Middleton’s range, Edward moved in for the KILL! Sparky “danced” right out of Fallon’s life and into Edward’s without missing a step.

* * * *

Edward knew of the torch Sparky had carried for Fallon Middleton and it still made him furious just thinking about the possibility of seeing Judge Middleton on the judge’s podium at the competition. He’d been stewing about it ever since the brochure with the information had been received. “I must find a way to get rid of Judge Middleton and that will lessen the threat to my relationship with Sparky.” He thought as his heart raced. That’s when he devised the overall plan to sabotage the competition. He continued to work on the details right up until the actual event took place.

* * * *

Rather than phone the police about the threat on his life, Fallon decided to direct his attention toward the possible involvement of the dancers in the competition, knowing that it was probably one of them that had thrown this threat at him.

“Now who would benefit most by putting me in this awkward place?” He mused. He, once again, picked up the roster of competitors and went through each name carefully; methodically looking for someone to stand out as the person behind all of this.

As he continued to skim the names, a couple of names stood out more than the others…Sparky Farnum Haversham and Edward Haversham. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of this before? Edward and Sparky – the dream couple!”

He smiled subtly as he concentrated on the last time he’d seen either one of them. “Now why, after all this time, would Edward consider me a threat? What would have possessed him to take out his crazy temper on me? What did I do? I never pursued Sparky once he was in the picture…NEVER!”

As he continued to dwell on all things “Haversham” the thought came to him that he’d gone to one of Sparky’s swim meets a long time ago…sitting in the crowd, hopefully unobserved by watchful, jealous eyes.
Had Edward seen him then? Had he decided to put Fallon Middleton out of the picture permanently even back then?
These questions needed answers.

Fallon looked once again at the roster and there were both contact numbers and email addresses provided for the competitors. Searching the list…there it was; Sparky’s cell number was among the listings.

His heart rate accelerated as he keyed in her number, hesitant of course, about Edward being in her presence as she received the “forbidden” call. But, the more he thought about calling, the more obvious it became that it was necessary to find out, no matter what danger he put himself in by doing so.

The phone rang. “Hello?”

Her voice reached through and he once again felt his heart race.

“Sparky, it’s Fallon. Are you able to talk?” He whispered.

“Oh my but it’s been a long time. Is something wrong?” She hesitated to say his name aloud. “Are you in some kind of trouble? Your voice sounds shaky.”

She’d pegged him alright.
She must be a mind reader
, he thought.

“Sparky I have to talk to you…alone. Is there somewhere we could meet safely? I should ask this…Is Edward within hearing distance of your conversation?” He’d done it now. No turning back!

“He’s out right now. He’s been preparing for the dance competition and running some other errands. I, personally, think something’s up with him. He hasn’t been rational since he returned from the hospital.” She stopped abruptly.

“Hospital?” Fallon asked.

“Yes he had a terrible bug that landed him in the hospital. Fallon he’s planned something awful and unfortunately has thrown me into the mix. I shouldn’t even be talking to you about this.  Did you want to meet somewhere? I could meet you in an hour at Cabriccios on 34
th
Street…would that be a good spot?”

“Cabriccios is fine at eleven then?”

“Yes Fallon, I will see you then. Oh and Fallon, be careful. I don’t trust Edward at all. He’s capable of anything.” With that the call ended.

Fallon prepared to meet Sparky. He was anxious and started trembling about seeing her after so long a time. He got ready and at ten-thirty left his brownstone and hopped in the waiting cab.

The sky threatened snow that day but he didn’t care. All he wanted was to see Sparky and find out if she would suspect her husband of making death threats to the staff of dancing competitions. His mind whirled as he kept running through the various scenarios about meeting Sparky. He had loved her once…and hurt her.