Illusion of Luck (17 page)

“
Ma’am, I’ve never heard
that name before. And I’ve been working here for nine
years.”

“
Well, he just moved in this
morning.”

The woman looked over the top of her
glasses. “I see.”

“
Could you just check it,
please?”

The woman worked at her computer a few
seconds. “Yes. Here he is. Apartment 143.”

Rebecca rushed out of the office, not
bothering to thank the woman or to wait for an apology. She spotted
Greg’s Bonneville in the parking lot, and walked over to it. “Okay.
Greg, why don’t you wait here while Sandy and I go in?”

“
Oh, no way. I’m going in.”
Greg opened his door and got out of the car.

“
Okay, then. Sandy, you get
in the driver’s seat and watch his garage door. If he tries to
escape, block him in with Greg’s car.”

Under normal circumstances, Greg would have
strongly objected to the idea of his car being used as a
bulldozer.

When they reached the apartment, Rebecca
said, “I’ll knock. He doesn’t know me. You stay back.”

She rang the doorbell.

And again.

Then she knocked.

No response.

Greg whispered. “Now what?”

She led him around to the side and checked
the windows. They were all locked. So, she took off a shoe and used
it as a hammer to break a window. Then she unlocked and opened
it.

Greg wanted Cynthia back more than anything,
but he wasn’t sure about breaking and entering. Were they
absolutely sure this was the right apartment? The right tenant?
What if they were wrong and they guy had a gun?

“
Give me a boost,” whispered
Rebecca.

Greg helped her climb in and then waited for
her to come back.

He saw a light come on inside—followed by a
gunshot!

Greg hit the ground.

Was Rebecca dead? He couldn’t budge. He was
frozen in the stone cold silence.

Chapter
22

Greg’s brain churned at hyper-speed, running
through the possibilities. Oh please, God, don’t let Rebecca be
dead. He heard somebody walking toward the window. What if it was
Larry—with a gun? He was about to jump up and run.

“
What are you doing down
there?”

He looked up and saw Rebecca. “Thank
goodness. Are you okay?”

“
Yeah, sure. There’s nobody
here.”

“
What was that loud
bang?”

“
Oh. Is that why you’re down
there?” She looked at him and wondered why she had even asked.
“Sorry I scared you. I saw a little piece of paper under the
kitchen table. So I pushed a chair out of the way and it tipped
over and it hit the tile floor.”

Greg stood up. “So what was on the
paper?”

“
It was just a receipt for
chips and cokes. Go around to the door and I’ll let you in so you
can help me search the place.”

While Rebecca looked through the kitchen
cabinets and drawers, Greg went into the master bedroom.

He prayed he would find the bed still made.
But if the covers had been thrown on the floor it could only mean
one thing. He flipped the light switch.

The bedspread was still in its place, but it
had been ruffled. He studied it for signs of… He felt ill. If he
found proof that Larry had forced himself on her, he would fall
apart—or turn into a raging madman.

He leaned in close—afraid of what he would
see. Then he smelled it—Cynthia’s perfume. He quickly sniffed up
and down the bedspread. It was all her.

He fell onto the bed and buried his face in
her scent. With his eyes closed, he could see her. Oh Baby, I love
you so much. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

The tears began to well up in his eyes.

He stood up and told himself
he must hold it together. They would find her. He would get his
wife back. His
wife
. Cynthia was his wife. He
wasn’t even used to calling her that yet. They had only been
married one day.

He checked the nightstand and found nothing.
Then he got down on hands and knees to search the carpet. He
flipped up the bedspread and looked under the bed. At first he
didn’t see anything. But as he was about to stand up, his eye
caught a flicker of light. He tried to locate its source, but it
was gone. So, he slowly traced his movements.

He saw it again, and reached under for
it.

It was a ring. Cynthia’s wedding ring.

As he studied the ring he had lovingly place
on her finger just 24 hours ago, his hand began to tremble.

“
What did you find?” Rebecca
was standing in the doorway.

“
It’s her wedding ring. It
was under the bed.”

“
Smart woman. She left it
for you to find.”

“
But wouldn’t he notice it
was missing?”

“
Probably not, since it’s
just a band. The
engagement
ring had the diamond,
right? That’s what people notice.”

“
Well, I’m surprised she was
still wearing them,” he said.

“
Yeah. You would think he
would have made her take them off. Maybe he’s pretending to be
married to her.”

Greg didn’t respond.

Rebecca knew what he was thinking. “But
we’ll find them soon. Don’t worry.”

“
How? All we know is that
they were here. We don’t know where they went or when they’ll be
back.”

“
You and Sandy can drop me
off at a coffee shop with free internet, and then come back here to
watch this place. I need to keep checking his web page for more
clues.”

**********

“
Where are you taking
me?”

“
Oh, you’re gonna love it,”
said Larry. “Ever done a threesome?”

Cynthia knew he would never give up on
having sex with her. She was just hoping to stall him until Greg
could rescue her. “That’s disgusting.”

“
Yeah.” He laughed. “But in
a
good
way.”

He pulled off the highway and stopped at a
convenience store, parking on the far right side. “I need some
tobacco,” he said.

Now she understood why he had stopped
smoking his nasty pipe.

“
You want something to
drink? A bag of chips?”

“
No, thanks.”

He reached into the glove box and pulled out
a pair of handcuffs.

“
I’d like to be able to
trust you, Baby. But after that little trick you pulled at the
apartment, I have to take precautions.”

He handcuffed her left wrist to the steering
wheel, got out of the car, and walked into the store.

Another car pulled up on the left side of
the Jaguar. The driver was an older woman—probably mid-seventies.
She killed the engine and reached across the seat for her purse.
When she glanced up, she noticed Cynthia sitting in the car beside
hers, and smiled at her.

Cynthia instinctively returned the smile.
Then she realized the woman might have seen the handcuffs.

The old woman got out of her car and walked
around to the driver’s side of the Jaguar.

Cynthia slid across the seat and leaned
against the steering wheel, trying to hide the cuffs.

“
Are you okay, Honey?” said
the woman through the closed window.

“
Yes. I’m fine. Thank
you.”

The woman pointed to the handcuffs Cynthia
was trying to hide.

Cynthia smiled. The woman had already seen
the them, so there was no use in lying about it. “It’s just a game
my boyfriend and I like to play.”

The old woman looked at
Cynthia’s engagement ring and then back at her face. Cynthia
suddenly realized her mistake, and she was afraid the woman had
caught it. She had just referred to her
boyfriend
—yet she was wearing
an engagement ring. Why hadn’t she called him her
fiancé?
But just as
she was about to correct it, the woman turned and hurried
away.

Cynthia watched her walk toward the store
entrance. Then Larry came out. When he saw the old woman walking
his direction, he started to walk in the opposite direction of his
car. What’s he doing? Cynthia wondered.

The old woman called to Larry. Cynthia
couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she could imagine.
No—please don’t ask him for help. Don’t tell him about the
handcuffs.

The woman led Larry back toward their cars.
This is not good, thought Cynthia.

“
See,” said the woman as she
stood between the two cars pointing at Cynthia.

Cynthia saw Larry bend down and look at her
over the old woman’s shoulder. There was a look in his eyes she had
not seen before. An evil look.

He grabbed the woman by the shoulders and
threw her down and backward into the side of her car, hitting her
head on the door.

She collapsed to the ground.

Cynthia looked down at the woman. She was
dazed, but still conscious.

Larry put his face up to the closed window.
“See what you’ve done.”

“
No! Leave her
alone!”

“
It’s
your
fault.”

The woman looked up. She didn’t seem to
realize that Larry had purposely harmed her. When she saw him squat
down, she thought he would help her get up.

“
You seem like a nice lady.
But that woman in the car is
not
nice. She wants you
dead.”

Cynthia had to stop him. In one quick
motion, she opened the door and flung it at Larry.

She had caught him off guard. He fell
sideways and hit his head on the old woman’s car.

He jumped to his feet.

Cynthia closed the door and locked it.

“
Open this door!”

She didn’t move a muscle.

Larry reached into his pocket, pulled out
the bomb remote, and flipped the lid open.

Cynthia unlocked the door.

He opened it and leaned inside. “I don’t
think you realize who you’re dealing with.”

He punched her in the jaw.

She grabbed her face and began to cry.

He got out and closed the door. Then he went
back to the old woman, who was still on the ground.

He took her head in his hands.

She looked up at him with thankful eyes.

“
You’re an old woman. It’s
not safe for you to be out alone at night.”

“
I know. But I ran out of
cigarettes.”

Larry slammed her head into the side of her
car.

“
Haven’t you heard?
Cigarettes will kill you,” he said.

He smashed her head against the unforgiving
metal over and over, until her gray hair began to turn red. Then he
raised her head and dropped it on the pavement like a bag of ice.
That usually breaks the cubes free, he thought. And sometimes it
tears the bag open.

Larry smiled to himself. What if the woman
had gone into the store and told the clerk and all the customers
about the pretty lady who was handcuffed to the steering wheel?
That might have been a serious problem for him. Or what if a
customer had come out while he was killing the old woman?

But, as usual, Larry’s luck had saved him.
His luck was better than a guardian angel.

Chapter
23

“
Why did you have to
kill
her?”

Larry puffed on his pipe and smiled.

Cynthia wished she could jump out of the
car. But if she didn’t die from hitting the road at 75 mph, she’d
surely die when Larry came back to hunt her down.

She had figured Larry for a
whacko when he stole her away from her honeymoon. But she hadn’t
been sure how dangerous he was. Now she knew he was a cold-blooded
killer. He really would push that red button and blow her hand off.
She had thought that if she tried to run away, losing her hand
would be her worst fate. Now
that
seemed like the
best
case
scenario.

“
What about your luck,
Larry? If you’re so lucky then why were you worried about her
telling somebody I was handcuffed? Didn’t you trust your luck to
keep you out of trouble?

“
Oh, my luck worked just
fine. I was able to kill her right there in the parking lot without
any witnesses. There were four or five customers in the store. Any
one of them could have walked out while I was cracking her head
open. Yet nobody did. That’s some powerful luck.”

“
Then why do you need me?
Why don’t you just go buy yourself a lottery ticket and win a
fortune. And then I’m sure any number of women would love to be
with you.”

“
It’s not that I
need
you. It’s that
I
want
you.
And I always get what I want.”

He puffed on his pipe. “But
I
did
buy a
lottery ticket for last night’s drawing.”

“
Did you win?”

“
Of course—$45 million.” He
grinned broadly.

Cynthia was amazed. Why is all the good luck
wasted on this creep?

“
Unless somebody else picked
the same numbers—which is possible, but unlikely.”

“
So, you don’t know how much
you won?”

“
Not yet. I haven’t even
checked the news.”

“
Then how do you know you
won?”