Fade to Black (12 page)

“Yeah, yeah, you thought I cared for you. I
was the one, blah, blah, blah. No, I’m not. All I care about is the end result,
and having to go through you to get it. I’m a better actress than anyone ever
gave me credit for.”

Hayden laughed as Dory slid to her side,
resting her head on the corner cabinet at an odd angle. “Oh, I’m sure that’s
uncomfortable. I’d help, but yeah, who am I kidding? I had no problem trying to
kill that bitch’s son, and you are a cakewalk.” She backed away and slowly sat
down, folding her legs neatly under her as she waited for Dory to die.

“No... Not Leo… you can’t hurt him…” Dory
tried to get up, only to fall back down on the floor. Reaching one hand out,
she started to attempt to drag herself out of the kitchen.

“Now where do you think you’re going?
Really, you don’t have the strength and will only frustrate yourself. Just kick
back, think about your life and all your regrets, things you wish you’d have
done differently, things you always wanted to tell someone, and just know
you’ll never have the chance now.” She clapped her hands together. “Oh, my,
this is much more fun than I thought it would be. I want to do this again!”

Hayden watched as Dory inched her way to
the edge of the kitchen before leaning over and grabbing her by the ankle and
dragging her back to where she began. “Now, let’s see how many times we can do
this.” She leaned over to whisper in her ear, “I’ll let you in on a secret. I
will
win.” Pushing Dory’s hair away from
her sweat-drenched face so she could see her eyes, Hayden smiled and said, “Oh,
yes, I’m totally going to win this one. There you go, try again.”

“I… hate… you…” Dory started to pull
herself along again.

Tilting her head to the side with each word,
she said, “Blah, blah, blah. Come on, this is really tiring. I have other
things to do and would like to get on with it. Here, you say you hate me, I
retort. You say I’ll never get away with it, I say I will. You say something
about haunting
me,
I say there are no ghosts. You say
something about Lily and Dev overcoming anything together. I try not to throw
up. And at some point, you finally die. There, all done. Die.”

They sat in silence staring at each other
before the light finally went out in Dory’s eyes and she took her last breath.
Hayden walked around and made sure there were no fingerprints in the home and
no hair on the couch. Without a backwards glance at the woman dead on the
kitchen floor, she closed the door behind her.

Chapter
Fifteen

Lily
stretched and tried to remember how she got in bed. Frowning, she wondered what
happened to Devlin, sad she didn’t get to spend more time with him. Getting up,
she went to start the coffee and stopped when she saw him sleeping on her
couch. Devlin Cross had spent the night on her couch. He knew she wouldn’t have
wanted him sleeping in her bed with her son here, but wanted to stay with them.
She hoped that was the reason he was still here; she supposed it could have
been because he was also tired. As she tiptoed by the couch, she let out a
little scream when his arm snaked out from under the old Thomas the Train
comforter and pulled her in toward him.

“Good morning.”

She shivered, his voice was all rough with
sleep and he was so warm. “Good morning. I was going to start the coffee.”

“Let’s see. A sexy, beautiful woman
snuggled up with me, or coffee?
Such hard decisions so early
in the morning.”

“Little boys rarely let you sleep in.”

“Big boys rarely let you sleep.” He nibbled
on her ear while sliding his hand down her hip.

“Someone woke up all frisky.”

His hand paused on her hip. “Frisky? I’m
not a damn cat.”

Lily chuckled under her breath.
“How about a big, frisky lion?”

“I don’t think the word ‘frisky’ should
ever be used to describe me.” He dug his fingers into her hip, tickling her.
“Wouldn’t you agree?”

Laughing, she said, “Oh… of course… what…
was… I…
thinking?”

“Exactly.
Now let’s see what word we can come up with to better describe my manly
attributes.”

“Cuddle-bear?
Snuggle-bunny?”
She laughed harder as he growled at her.
“What, you don’t like those?”

“Awesome!” Leo’s voice called from the
hallway. He ran and jumped on both of them, wiggling and working his way
between them. “I win.”

“What? How did you win?” Lily asked.

“Just cuz.
What’s for breakfast? I’m starving.”

Lily slid off of the couch. “You always
are.
How about you, my little frisky snuggle-bunny?”
She jumped out of the way as Devlin just missed grabbing her.

“Oh, I’m hungry. No doubt about that.”

Lily turned around and looked at him; his
eyes burning with passion were locked with hers. Instantly her body responded
to him and she knew it was going to be a long time before she could have him.

~^~

“Why do you keep looking at the clock?”
Devlin asked.

“Because, Dory should be
here by now.
She’s late,” Lily said as she started to
pace the room. Dory had called last night and wanted them all to get together
for lunch, even introduce her new girlfriend.

“I wouldn’t worry, why don’t you give her a
call?”

“I have been calling her, and texting.
Nothing.
This isn’t like her.”

“You did say she has a new girlfriend.”

“If it was anyone but Dory I’d have to
agree with you, but no, not her. Have you ever had that deep in your gut
feeling that something was wrong?”

He shook his head, “No, no I haven’t.”

“Well, that’s what I have now. You don’t
understand; I’ve known her forever, if she’s going to be late, which is rare,
you’ll always get a phone call. If you need her, she’s there for you. Hell,
when I went into labor with Leo she was at the hospital before my husband, and
she was two hours away! No, something’s wrong. I’ve got to see her.” She picked
up her keys, running down the stairs, not caring if Devlin was behind her or
not, thankful Leo was over at Billy’s playing this morning.

The urge to get to Dory was clouding
everything and making her shake. She tried to open her car door but was unable
to. After the second attempt to get into her car, she was surprised when Devlin
took the keys from her hand. “Here, let me drive. We don’t need you in an
accident.”

She looked at him with huge eyes. “Please
hurry.”

Leading her around the car, he gently sat
her down and buckled her in. “I’ll do my best.”

Sitting in silence, except to let him know
where to turn, she couldn’t keep her hands or legs still. Under her breath, she
kept muttering, “Please let her be okay, please let her be okay.”

Once they skidded to a stop in front of
Dory’s house, she was off in a flash, running up to the front door. She turned
the knob and flung the door open, her heart racing and everything bad that could
possibly happen flowing through her mind. She fell to her knees when she got to
the kitchen as a scream retched from her body. “No, no, no!” she screamed as
she crawled over to her. “Please wake up, please be okay. Come on, Dory. Don’t
you do this to
me.
Devlin! Call 9-1-1.”

With shaking fingers she attempted to find
a pulse. Looking at her open eyes, Lily knew in her head she was already gone,
but her heart couldn’t accept it. She gently pushed Dory’s hair back from her
face and lay down next to her, face to face. “Come on, baby, don’t leave me. I
don’t know what I’d do without you. Oh no, no, no. Please no.” She sat up and
gathered Dory’s cold body up in her arms. “I love you. Help is on the way. We
can do this.” She started rocking her and singing softly to her as tears ran
down her face.

~^~

Devlin sat on the floor behind Lily with
his hand rubbing her back. He didn’t know what to do. He could feel the pain
and loss she was experiencing with every shudder of her body and each sob she
cried. He tried to think of what to do to help her so she wouldn’t drown in
sorrow, but he was drawing a blank. So he sat there and tried to hold onto her
as she held onto her best friend.

He heard the paramedics come in and tried
to pry her away. “Come on, Lily. It’s time to let go.”

“No! I’ll never let go. She needs me. I
don’t want her to be alone.” She hung on tighter.

“Lily, come on, you have to let them do
their work. They’ll take care of her now. Please, honey, let them work.”

When her grip loosened, Devlin gathered her
up in his arms and walked her into the living room. He knew she wouldn’t want
to go far. He sat down on the couch with her in his lap, her tears making his
shirt wet. He looked around the room and could see Lily and Leo everywhere.
They truly were like family to her. He closed his eyes against the pain he knew
was coming for both of them. If there were a way he could take it all away from
them, he would.

“Did you know she loves animals?” Devlin
knew, but let her talk. “Any kind, I always gave her a hard time about them and
her work with the shelters, but really I admired it. Her heart was much too
big, and when they were hurt, she’d cry. She’d rather spend her last dollar on
food for them than herself. Wait!” She pulled herself away from him. “Where’s
Sabby?”

“Who’s Sabby?”

“It’s her cat. She’s got to be around here
somewhere. She couldn’t have gotten out the door. Why didn’t I close it behind
me?
Sabby!”
She clucked her tongue a few times, “Come
here, girl.” She stood up and started racing around the room, looking under
everything, trying to find the cat.

Devlin followed closely behind Lily, not
wanting her to be far away from him. He barely caught Lily when they arrived at
the door to Dory’s room. Her body shook with grief as she sobbed in his arms.

Lily pushed away from him and went to the
bed, dropping to her knees she lifted up the bed skirt and peeked under.
“Sabby.
Here, girl.”
She clucked
her tongue. “Come on, baby… yeah… here we go.” Once she had the cat in her arms,
she hugged her tightly. She looked up at Devlin with sorrow in her voice and
said, “Can you go into the garage? There’s a cat carrier in there. Sabby’s
going home with us.”

“I can do that.” He leaned down and kissed
the top of her head. He didn’t know Dory well, and while he was saddened by her
death, nothing he was feeling compared to what Lily and Leo would be going
through. He’d always been generous with his time and money when it came to
helping people through tough times, but this time he was at a loss as to what
he could do for them except be there.

~^~

As soon as they entered her home, Lily set
the cat carrier down and opened it so Sabby could come out. Carefully she went
to the kitchen and filled up a bowl of water. She was focusing on everything that
needed to be done for the cat. If she did, maybe she wouldn’t break down again.
She was doing fine until she walked into Leo’s room. There were so many things
Dory had given him over the years. He was going to be home soon and she’d have
to tell him.

When Devlin walked into the room, she
turned to him. “Everything was going fine, we were all normal, and then bam,
everything changed and it will never be the same again.
I
will never be the same again. I’ve lost her. She’s never going to
walk back through that door. She’s never going to give me a hard time. We’re
never going to be able to cry on each other’s shoulders. How can I go on without
her? She’s always been there for me. Oh, my God, she’s really gone. I want to
go back to yesterday. I want to tell her one more time that I love her. I don’t
want my son to lose his Aunt Dory. Please, God, let me take the pain away from
my son. I don’t want him to have to deal with this. How can I be strong enough
for him when I’m not strong enough for myself?”

She knew this might be the last time she
could give in to her grief; she was going to have to be strong for her son.
Somehow she’d have to find a way.

Chapter
Sixteen

Lily
sat in her studio absently kicking the foot pedal on the kick wheel she had
thrown her clay on. Lifting the sponge out of the water, she squeezed it over
the lump of clay she’d been staring at for the past two hours. If it wasn’t for
Devlin, she wasn’t sure what she’d have done since Dory died. They got the
autopsy report this morning, and she wasn’t surprised. Dory’s heart had always
been weak. Lily used to tease her it was because she gave so much of herself to
everyone else and every animal she came across, that there was nothing left to
take care of her own needs.

Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back,
willing herself not to cry again. It was bad enough she kept looking for Dory
to walk through the door, but Leo was devastated. He’d been clinging to her
more than usual. She felt bad sending him to summer camp, but he’d been going
for years and his best friend Billy was going, too. He needed the normalcy of
camp and different scenery; they’d been spending so much time cleaning out
Dory’s house and taking care of her business. Now she was alone she had no idea
what to do. Her mind went around and around about Dory. Devlin was spending a
lot of time with her and it helped, but he couldn’t be there twenty-four hours
a day.