Broken Serenade (32 page)

    “
And the ankle bracelet?” Vivien asked, confused. “I heard you pursuing Nadine to receive it as a temporary gift. She accepted it. How come you’re the one wearing it around your ankle now? I know it very well. It’s the same.”

    “No, Vivien, it’s not! It is a copy of the original one. I was able to recall it in every small detail and draw a design sketch,” Lili said
, with a hint of pride. “And I can assure you that this replica is indeed as expensive as they’ve gossiped to be the authentic one back in Woodside,” she gasconaded. 

    “How did you get to look like this?” Vivien inquired.

    “I didn’t have a decent
picture of me. In fact, I only had my driver’s license picture. And I hated that one. The worst photo of me ever taken! But I always kept with me a picture of my darling Nadine, a beautiful profile picture. I also had her driver’s license; she had left her purse in my car. With those two photos of her… Anyway, it was my idea. And a brilliant one I may say! This way she lives a little bit through me. I always have her close. I see a part of her beautiful face every time I look in the mirror. It eases the guilt, the pain that I feel when I think that I’m alive – I can laugh, I can cry, I can make love, or bath naked in the ocean - while her life ended so early and violently!” 

   
“You gave a stunning performance, Lili!” Timothy exclaimed with a contemptuous laughter. “Did anyone tell you that you’ve missed your vocation? If not, it’s never too late to learn that. You could’ve been such a successful actress! If I didn’t have my hands tied up behind my back, I would’ve given you my most enthusiastic round of applause. So much effort, my dear! What for? To convince Vivien that I’m the villain in this picture, that I’m the one who killed Nadine? If, by any chance, you didn’t do it, why do you think
I
did it?”

    “No, Tim, I don’t
think!
I’m sure of it! Apart from you, there was no one, absolutely no one who had the most insignificant motive to do it. And you’ll pay for what you’ve done,” she threatened. “I have not debts. I always pay them off.” She swirled around and advanced toward him with a demented look upon her strange face.  

    “
That’s the rationale of a low IQ person. You’re better than that, Lili! In fact, I think you’re brilliant – in a twisted way, of course.” Timothy laughed nervously. “But you’re also crazy! You’re out of your freaking mind! If you want me dead, there is certainly another reason.”

    Lili snarled menacingly.

    “Yes, Tim! The bottom line is I want you dead! No matter the reason. However, the fact that you know my house so well doesn’t tip the balance to your favor. On the contrary, I would say!”  

    “That’
s why you killed Robert Kane! And the construction engineer before him! God! You’re a cold-blooded killer!” he exclaimed, instantly having a painful revelation.

    “
Don’t jump to conclusions. And don’t be so judgmental, Tim. Enough talk! Humor me with some… action in the area I’m most interested now. Sincerely, I want to see what Nadine found in you, and how you charmed your way into Vivien’s bed. Not to mention that a talent in architecture - like your rare talent - shouldn’t be wasted. The genes should be passed on to the next generation. I want to be your holy grail,” she declared solemnly. “I heard that you never have sex without your
Magnums
. Well, darling, there will be no protection for you tonight. Literally!” She snickered insolently, licking the barrel of the gun. 

    Timothy’s eyebrows sprang up.

    “And what are yo
u going to do? Rape me?” he asked surprised. “You mislead yourself painfully, my dear! I can’t get it up with monsters like you!”

  
Lili undid the zipper that cut her tight dress elegantly and sensually along the upper right leg and ended only a few inches under the waistline. She did it slowly, with calculated moves. Ignoring the obvious disgust on Timothy’s face and the horror on Vivien’s, she positioned herself comfortably on his lap and started to undo the buttons of his shirt. He writhed under her, trying to throw her down. The woman raised the pistol under his nose.

    “I would really like to know you’re in one piece and unhurt during the act, but if you insist…
I could easily put a bullet in each one of your muscular legs. It would be such a shame, don’t you think?”

    Timothy stopped fighting
. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He tried to concentrate and buy more time. Hope for a miracle.

    “You’re right, Lili!
Actually, I should be grateful to you for not serving me LaFontain. Lucky me! She’s too old for that, isn’t she? She’s probably old enough to be my mother. Deep down into the miserable menopausal years, aren’t you LaFontain?”

    “You’re not that young yourself.
Many people think that I look pretty good for my age. I want to see how you’ll look at 57,” LaFontain answered his affront.

    “Oh, you’re 57
? I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were that old,” Timothy said.

    LaFontain was naïve enough to mistake his remark for a compliment.

    “Well, thank you,” she said, flattered, and she hurried to arrange a hair strand on her greasy forehead.

    “
Oh, yes, no problem. You look a lot younger. You don’t look like 57, you look like… 56 and a half. Maybe,” Timothy continued mockingly.

    The secretary
foamed at the mouth with expletives.

    “Shut up, LaFontain,” Lili ordered her. “You need some anger management classes, dear.”

    “Thank you, Lili. How nice of you to take my side. Anyway, I just want to mention that the thought of her playing your ‘holy grail’ role makes me queasy. And I’m afraid it could be a deadly threat to my so lauded sexual potency. Not that you’re too far from her on my list of can’t-really-do chicks either.”

    “I appreciate the fact that you didn’t lose your sense of humor,” Lili smiled and let the gun slide
steadily down to his sex. “Now, Tim dear, it’s time to get to work! Empty talk will get you nowhere.”

    “Mademoiselle Lili,” Vivien intervened urgently.
It was time she took the chance. She was breathing laboriously and shacking visibly. “You’re not really into men. You don’t want him now, do you?” she asked and managed an anemic smile.

    Her
white, ice-cold fingers ventured tentatively to the buttons of her beige cashmere sweater. She undid them with no hurry at all, one by one. She uncovered a black lace balconette bra that left her round breasts half-naked and maddeningly heaving with her each and every breath. The desire she read into the older woman’s eyes encouraged her.

    “You want me, don’t you?
” Vivien whispered, sensually biting her lower lip. “I’d find more pleasure in a snake’s embrace rather than in yours,” she said boldly. “But you could have me. I could be yours forever. All you have to do is free Tee. Let him go, and I’ll be your sex toy, your lover, anything you want me to be.”

    Lili shook her head
violently as if wanting to wake up from a dream.

    “My darling, you’ll be mine anyway
!” she grinned. “Now sit down and play the piano,” she demanded.

    “I can’t!
I don’t feel like playing the piano right now,” Vivien challenged her, disappointed to tears that her plan had not worked. However, her hands were free, and she needed to do something. She sensed that Lili had a soft spot for her. She wouldn’t kill or even hurt her. Lili hated Tee. His life was in danger, not hers.

    Vivien
fixed the crystal bowl on the piano with an absent look. Then suddenly, with no one anticipating her move, she let out a frustrated scream, and with the back of her hand, she sent that bowl crashing to the floor. Multicolored bonbons jumped cheerfully on the marble tiles, and shards of glass flew in the direction of Lili and Timothy. Vivien collapsed on her knees crying and sobbing in a state of hysteria.

    LaFontain
thrust her meaty hand into the young woman’s hair. Vivien winced in pain.

    “Leave her alone!” Timothy and Lili roared together. LaFontain backed up a couple of steps from her.

    For a few moments, no one spoke. Only Vivien’s sobs altered the heavy silence.

    T
imothy remembered how she calmed down every time she played the piano.

    “Vee,” he called her softly, “you play it for me, my love.”

    Vivien nodded and got up gingerly, sniffing and wiping her tears with her arm. She sat at the piano, and her long, graceful fingers touched the first keys. Shubert’s Serenade sounded surprisingly harmonious, despite her obvious distress. Lili smiled satisfied.
She hasn’t forgotten… She hasn’t forgotten ME,
she reflected, impressed. Mesmerized, she looked at Vivien for a long while. She looked at her face, at her lips, at her beautiful skin, and the tremendous effort she made to fight the temptation was almost palpable. Her fingers ached to touch her, to feel her. In the end, she was able to control herself.

    Lili
went back to her prisoner. She let her hair down and pushed it on her back. Now she resembled Nadine even better. She uncovered her white and bonny shoulders, and then, she continued to undo the buttons of Timothy’s blue cotton shirt. She leaned to kiss him on the mouth, but the man turned his face, disgusted with her. Her lipstick left a bloody red mark on his bruised cheek. She snickered insolently. Timothy turned and spited in her face. The woman slapped him eagerly. He answered her with a steel-like glance. Watching contented as the marks of her fingers shaped rapidly on the man’s face, Lili started to undo his belt and pants with brutal moves.  

    “Seriously?
” Timothy exclaimed stupefied. “Do you really think it’s possible? I need atmosphere, lady! I’m not in the mood! The gun you’re pocking me with is not helping.”

    “I will help
you, my darling boy. Be patient. Do you care to know what my first job in America was? I was a call-girl
,”
Lili bragged about it. “I met all kinds of men, young and old; some marked by impotency, other virile like real studs. Two things they had in common: money and boring wives. I pleased them all. I was very successful.” 

    “
I bet you were! The job suited you like a glove! Sorry to disappoint you, but as far as I’m concerned, you don’t strike the right note here, despite all your talents and efforts,” Timothy said.   

    The piano playing came to an abrupt end. Vivien stood up white as a ghost.

    “I feel sick. I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”

    “
LaFontain, go with her back there!” Lili ordered. “Vivien, just a friendly advice, don’t try anything crazy! It’s for your own good. And his, of course.”

    Vivien retched
as if on the verge to throw up all over the piano. The secretary grabbed her arm and pushed her with hostility toward the
Powder Room
situated behind the column where Timothy had been tied up.  

    “LaFontain, go easy on her,” Lili yelled.

    “Lili, Vivien gets panic attacks,”
Timothy informed her, concerned. “She develops tachycardia during these episodes. She could have a heart attack. Let me go with her. Please. That helps her.”

    “I get panic attacks too every now and then. They
are not life threatening. Everybody knows that. She’s safe with LaFontain. Nice try, though! But if I were in your precarious position - literally and figuratively speaking - I would be inclined to spare more thought on my own skin… and do something…”

    “Well, Lili, you don’t have to
wave the flag of your selfishness so openly. It’s not something to be proud of,” Timothy told her, as his fingers reached a big piece of glass from the crystal bowl that Vivien had intentionally broken earlier.

    “O
n the other hand, Tim dear, your unhealthy combination of virtue and stubbornness, coupled with your razor-sharp tongue, could take you to your grave much sooner than I actually planned it,” she pointed out malignantly.

*                                        *                                       *

    A very daring plan had sprouted inside Vivien’s mind. Timothy had been right. Playing the piano had calmed her down just enough to push her brain into action. Walking slowly toward the bathroom, Vivien prayed silently that things would work as she had imagined them, and especially the toilet would be the way she needed it to be. Otherwise, she would have to improvise. She would do it. She would do anything for her Tee.

   
A powerful infusion of adrenaline made her heart go maddeningly fast. She could hear its wild, galloping rhythm.

    Vivien knew this was their big chance.
Maybe the only chance.
She needed LaFontain’s gun. She had anticipated that Lili would send the woman to guard her.

    “Enter and leave the door cracked open,”
LaFontain ordered.

    “No, please, come with me inside,” Vivien pleaded. “I’m afraid to be alone. Just turn around and face the door. Please Miss LaFontain,” she insisted.