Illusion of Luck (25 page)

“
Something happened at the
mini-mart across the street. I don’t know if they got robbed or
what.”

“
I see. Well, I just hope
nobody got hurt.”

The waitress shook her head. “Yeah. I always
thought of this as a safe area.”

“
Well, you just never know,
I guess.”

As soon as she walked away, Larry pulled two
twenties out of the ATM envelope and threw them on the table. He
had not intended to be a big tipper tonight, but he didn’t have
time to wait for change.

He ducked into the kitchen and hurried
toward the back, looking for the exit.

“
Hey, what are you doing
back here? It’s employees only.”

What I’m doing back here is putting a bullet
right between your eyes, thought Larry. Be careful what you say,
Dude, or you’ll be as dead as the beef hanging in the freezer.

But Larry didn’t have time for any more
trouble right now. “I’m sorry, but I was sitting next to the
kitchen and I started feeling really sick.” He acted like he was
about to barf. “I need to throw up, Man. Where’s the back
door?”

“
Oh, don’t throw up in here.
There—go through there. And hurry. And don’t puke on the sidewalk
either. Go way out there in the grass.”

Larry ran out holding his hand over his
mouth. Once he was outside, he casually made his way to the
sidewalk, and down to the Jaguar.

He drove out of town at the speed limit, and
knew he was safe. Nobody had seen his car and nobody had seen him
kill her. The ATM camera probably got a good shot of him, but with
the hood pulled down over his face, all they got was a mouth
surrounded by beard. They had nothing.

Larry had executed his plan flawlessly.
Murder by gun suited him well. He decided to make it his new weapon
of choice.

**********

After a second round of
lovemaking, Greg was tired, sore and
very
happy. And although he was
sleepy, he needed to make a quick trip to the bathroom.

He had washed his hands and he was about to
turn off the light and go back to bed when he glanced at himself in
the mirror.

“
Do you have
any
idea how lucky
you are?” his reflection said.

“
Of course I do.”

“
No, really. I don’t think
you do. I mean, you’re a nice guy, and not bad looking. And you’ve
got a pretty good sense of humor, but
come on
. Are you kidding me?
The girl is fabulous, Man. She’s a supermodel. Can’t you see
that?”

“
Sure. But
she
says it’s what’s
on the
inside
that counts.”

“
Well, then you’d better
keep your insides in tip top shape, Buddy. ‘Cause you don’t want
to
ever
lose
that
lady.”

“
I know, I know. Now be
quiet while I say a prayer.
Lord, I
thank you again for Cynthia. I’ll never feel like I deserve her,
but I promise to care for her and love her with all my heart every
day for the rest of my life. Amen.”

“
That prayer sounded a lot
like your wedding vows,” said his reflection.

“
And I’m serious about those
vows.”

Then he heard Cynthia calling to him from
the bed. “Greg? Who are you talking to?”

He opened the door. “Nobody. Well…actually,
I was talking to myself.”

“
I see. And just what
was
yourself
telling you?”

“
He was telling me how lucky
I am to have you.”

She smiled. “Well then, you
can tell
yourself
he’s a pretty smart guy.”

“
I think he already knows
that. He’s kind of a smart aleck, really.”

“
Well, bring him over here
anyway, because I want to kiss
both
of you.”

“
Whoa. This is getting kinda
kinky.”

“
That’s right. Think you can
handle it?”

Suddenly, he wasn’t tired at all.

Chapter
33

Rebecca tried to ignore the phone, but it
just kept ringing. She recognized the ring tone—it was Wendy
calling from the office, even though she had been instructed not
to.

As soon as she yanked the covers off her
head, the sunlight beaming through the slim opening between the
curtains hit her in the eye like a laser. “Hello?”

“
Just wanted to find out
what time you were coming in. Mrs. Smithers has already called to
confirm her appointment.”

“
But, Wendy—“

“—
oh, and that police
detective called yesterday. He’s got some more questions for
you.”

Yesterday? Yesterday
was
Sunday
.
Wasn’t it? “Wendy, what is today?”

“
The 27th.”

“
No. What day of the week is
it?”

Wendy hesitated, and then said, “It’s
Tuesday.”

Rebecca had already glanced
at her clock radio, but thought it was broken. “It’s 8:25 on
Tuesday
morning.”

“
Yes… What’s the matter,
Rebecca?”

“
I was asleep for 24 hours.
I knew I was tired, but—okay, I’ll be in soon. Thanks, Wendy.
Bye.”

Rebecca sat on the side of the bed and
checked her cell phone for missed calls and messages. It would have
been nice to have one from Sandy. Their upcoming Friday night date
seemed a year away.

By now, Greg and Cynthia should be enjoying
one heck of an afterglow, she thought. After waiting all that time,
their first night must have set the sheets on fire. She imagined
what it would be like to get naked with Sandy.

Surely Greg wouldn’t mind a quick call. It
would be nice to know for sure that the honeymoon was finally on
track—with no more interference from Larry the Loser.

Rebecca located what she thought was Greg’s
number in her ‘Dialed Calls’ list and pressed the Send button.

“
Hello?”

She must have woken Greg up, she thought. He
didn’t sound like himself. “Hey, Greg, this is Rebecca
Ranghorn.”

“
Oh, yes, Rebecca. Thanks
for calling. But, this is not Greg’s number—it’s
Cynthia’s.”

“
Who is this?”

“
It’s me—Barry Undermine.
And I will be seeing my darling Cynthia very soon. In fact, I plan
to impregnate her this very evening.”

“
What?”

“
You heard me. I’m going to
plant
my
seeds in
his
garden.” He began to laugh.

“
Larry Luzor.” She spit the
name into her phone.

He stopped laughing. “How did you know my
real name?”

“
Oh, I know everything about
you. Number one: you’re a coward. Number two: you’re a woman
killing, slimy, sorry excuse for a human being. And…that’s it.
You’re just a Number One and a Number Two. You’re something people
flush down the toilet, Larry. I guess that makes you a
potty person
. Minus
the
person
,
of course.”

“
That’s brave talk, coming
from a mere woman.”

“
You haven’t dealt
with
this
woman. And when you do—you’re gonna be sorry you ever laid a
hand on my partner.”

“
Candy?”

“
Her name was
Melanie.”

“
Oh, I think Candy is more
fitting, since
Candy
let me lick her all over,
and I’m telling right now: she was
delicious
.”

“
You pig!”

“
What about you? Did you
ever get a lick of Miss Candy?”

“
You make me want to
barf!”

“
I can’t tell you how much
fun it was to hump her fine body over and over, and then pop her
cute little neck like a chicken bone.”

“
Just name the place and
I’ll be there. But you won’t, will you? You ain’t got the balls to
try that with
me
.”

“
Honey, I will be more than
happy to take you on. But first, I’ll have my date with Cynthia.
I’m gonna introduce that redhead to the business end of a fourteen
year-old hard-on. But, don’t worry—I’ll get back to
you.”

“
You just leave her alone,
or I’ll—“

“—
you’ll what? There’s
nothing you can do to stop me, so don’t waste your time. And
speaking of time—thanks for the wakeup call. Although, it was a
little late. It’s already 9:30, and I’ve got a woman to stalk. So,
have a nice day, Honey. See you soon.” He kissed into the phone and
hung up.

She threw her cell phone at the wall.
Chasing Larry around for the past few days had kept her mind off
Melanie. Now her heart ached as though she had just found her
friend’s lifeless body in that rundown motel room.

Rebecca’s mind wandered to the time she
caught Melanie. It happened just a few weeks after they had become
partners. At around 8:30 on a Wednesday night, Rebecca was on her
way to make Cheating Husband Video No. 37 when she realized that
her video camera was not in the car. So, she swung by the office to
pick it up.

There was light coming from Melanie’s
office, so she walked in to turn it off, and was startled to see a
hooker sitting at Melanie’s desk.

“
What are doing in here?”
Rebecca grabbed her cell phone and was about to call the
police.

“
Rebecca.”

Rebecca was surprised the hooker knew her
name.

The woman stood up. “Rebecca, it’s
me—Melanie.”

If that coal black hair is a
wig, thought Rebecca, it
could
be her. Man, was she hot!
The tight mini-skirt and low-cut blouse accentuated all her nice
parts. How could any man with blood in his veins resist her?
“Melanie, why in the world are you dressed like that?”

Melanie smiled bashfully. “I’m working.”

“
Working?
Working the
streets?
”

“
Yeah, sort of. I’m gonna
try to pick up a certain husband in a certain bar and take him to a
motel.”

“
You’re crazy.”

“
Yeah, a little. But I’ve
got to catch this guy. I’ve tried everything else. And the wife is
absolutely sure he’s cheating.”

“
What makes her so
sure?”

“
She found a condom in his
pants pocket.”

“
And?”

“
His wife had a hysterectomy
two years ago.”

“
So, now you’re going to
seduce him—and what? Secretly videotape him getting naked with
you?”

“
Well, yeah.”

Melanie was like a little sister to Rebecca.
“Sweetie, please don’t do that. It’s gonna make you feel so dirty,
and it could be dangerous. It’s just not worth it.”

“
But it’s the only way I can
nail him.”

“
No. Don’t do it.” It was
more of an order than a request.

“
Well…okay.”

Rebecca grabbed her camera and left. “Bye.
See you in the morning.”

The next morning when Rebecca walked into
the office with the donuts, she found Melanie sitting at her desk
watching a video on the camera’s LCD screen, smiling. “He’s a
goner,” she said, with great satisfaction. “The wife will get
everything she wants and deserves.”

Rebecca walked around the
desk and watched the video over her shoulder. “You had
sex
with him? What
were you thinking?”

“
I got him.”

“
Yeah, we’ll it looks
like
he
got
you
. I don’t understand. How could you degrade yourself like
this, Melanie?”

“
It’s worth it to catch a
cheater.”

“
No, it’s not. You’ve turned
yourself into a—”

Melanie jumped up from her
chair. “—a slut? No, I haven’t. My ex-husband did
that
.”

“
By cheating on you with
hookers? How did that make
you
a bad person?”

“
Look, I understand what
you’re saying, Rebecca, and I
wish
I could feel that way about
it. But after I went up to Little Rock and met that prostitute,
Cherry, and found out he had sex with dozens of women like her, I
knew I was just another hooker to him. And it was as though I had
slept with all of those women too.”

“
That’s crazy,
Honey.”

“
I know it’s crazy. But I
can’t get it out of my head. So, I decided I might as well put it
to good use.”

When the husband had seen the video, he
agreed to his wife’s divorce terms. The wife never saw it. Once all
the paperwork had been signed, Melanie destroyed her little sex
tape.

Rebecca had made Melanie promise she would
never do it again. But now she thought about all the cases her
partner had closed in short order, and knew why. She shuddered to
think that her friend got any pleasure from the lurid encounters.
If so, she was even more damaged than Rebecca had realized.