Honeymoon for Three (31 page)

“Emily made fun of my bellybutton,” Alfred
said.

“She made fun of your bellybutton two days
before she was going to be married?”

Alfred frowned. “She shouldn’t have gotten
married. She was…”

He stopped talking. He had confirmed her
thoughts. Emily was her best friend from high school. She and Emily
had gone around together. They had similar views of the world. They
were almost the only two girls who were nice to Alfred. Penny left
Fenwick and went to California. Emily stayed in Fenwick.

“I never disrespected your bellybutton.” In
fact, Penny hadn’t known he had an outie bellybutton until last
night, or if she had she’d forgotten it.

Alfred admitted that she had paid the proper
respect to his bellybutton with a slight nod.

“So why do you want to kill me?”

“I don’t want to kill you.”

He had a funny way of showing it. “Why do
you want to kill Gary? He’s never done anything to you.”

“Because he’s trying to take you away from
me.”

Penny couldn’t believe the arrogance of that
statement. She and Gary were married. Of course, Gary might not
want her after what she had done. Penny looked at Gary, who had
been following this discussion from a kneeling position. She was
sure he could get up, but the way he held his body and the
expression on his face suggested that he was in pain. He might not
be much good in a fight. She had to be the one to save him, and if
possible, herself as well.

Penny took another step away from Alfred and
said, “Let Gary walk away. If you do, we won’t say anything to the
police about this. Or about Emily.” She almost choked when she said
that. “But if you do anything to Gary…”

“You think I don’t know what you’re doing,”
Alfred said. “You think you can twist me around your little finger.
You pretty girls are all alike.” He raised his gun and pointed it
at Gary.

Penny said, loudly, “You want me to be
yours, don’t you?”

Alfred turned to look at her, again. At
least she had some control over him. Behind him, Gary motioned
urgently for Penny to get away. She couldn’t do that.

“It’s very simple. If you want me, then all
you have to do is take me like a man is supposed to take a
woman.”

Penny crossed her hands at the bottom of her
sweater and in a single fluid motion pulled it up and over her
head. She dropped it on the rocks. Her eyes held Alfred’s and
wouldn’t let them go. She didn’t dare look at Gary or she wouldn’t
be able to do this. She unbuttoned and unzipped her slacks and let
them drop to her feet. She stepped out of them, something she
wouldn’t have been able to do if she were wearing shoes. Her eyes
were still locked on Alfred’s.

“We’re going to do this right. Everything
comes off, the way it’s supposed to.”

Penny unhooked her bra, slid the straps off
her arms, and let it fall on her other clothes. She had Alfred’s
full attention. He didn’t look at Gary. Perhaps he had forgotten
about Gary. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Gary had
started to stand up. She slid her panties down and stepped out of
them. Only her socks remained.

“Now you see me the way I am in your
picture.”

Penny put her hands on her hips, giving him
a good look. Then she took a step toward him. He didn’t move. She
hoped Gary wouldn’t say anything and break the spell. She took
several more steps. Alfred held the gun loosely, pointing down, as
if he had forgotten about it. If she could just get it away from
him.

She advanced slowly, keeping her eyes locked
on Alfred’s, willing him to stay focused on her. With her
peripheral vision she saw Gary get to his feet and take a step
toward Alfred from behind. She was almost to Alfred, herself. She
thought she saw him tremble. She didn’t dare go for the gun and
break the spell. At least not yet.

Two more steps and she carefully put her
arms around Alfred’s neck. She whispered, “Take me like a man. Then
she kissed him on the mouth. At first he didn’t respond. Then he
did. He was kissing her. She opened her mouth and put her tongue
into his mouth. His arms went around her. She could feel the cold
metal of the gun touching her back.

Penny opened one eye and saw that Gary was
approaching Alfred from behind. What could he do with his hands
taped behind his back? She needed to get Alfred on the ground where
Gary could kick him—perhaps kick the gun away. She pulled downward
on Alfred’s shoulders with her arms, trying to give him the idea.
But he kept his body rigid. He hadn’t given in to her
completely.

She had to take the next step. She slowly
slid down to her knees, making sure she didn’t spook him. She
lifted his shirt, exposing his potbelly—and his bellybutton. It
didn’t look that bad. She put her mouth on it. A few flicks of her
tongue, and he started to relax.

With her face in Alfred’s stomach, she
couldn’t see what Gary was doing. She hoped he was being careful.
Alfred’s stomach was moving a little in rhythm with her own motion.
Maybe he wasn’t paying attention, and Gary could get the gun away
from him somehow. Alfred’s hands were resting on her shoulders. She
couldn’t feel the gun, but she knew it was there.

Suddenly Alfred jerked his arms up. The gun
exploded in Penny’s ear, deafening her. She turned her head and saw
Gary yell and disappear behind a rock. She didn’t know whether he
had been hit. Alfred tried to go toward the rock, but she wrapped
her arms around his legs like a football player and hung on. Gary’s
life depended on it.

He hit her on the head several times with
his hand, but she continued to cling to his legs. She expected him
to hit her with the gun, but he would have to shoot her to make her
let go. He momentarily stopped struggling. She risked letting go of
his legs with one hand, and before he could react, she grabbed the
zipper of his fly and tried to pull it down. It stuck.

Before she could try again, Alfred hit her
hand.

“Let’s do this right.” Penny grabbed the
zipper again.

“No!” Alfred yelled, pushing her hand
away.

“I want you, Alfred. Take me like a man.”
Penny got a fresh grip on the zipper. This time she succeeded in
unzipping his pants.

He hit her hand with the gun. Hard. Then he
gave a cry like a banshee, broke free from her grasp, and ran
toward the cliff. As Penny watched, aghast, he jumped off the cliff
and disappeared from view. She could hear the wail continue for
several seconds, descending in pitch, and then—just the lapping of
the waves on the rocks below.

CHAPTER 33

For a split second, Gary thought it was
Penny who was screaming. He straightened up from the crouch where
he had positioned himself to charge when Alfred came around the
rock. He looked over the top of the rock in time to see Alfred race
for the cliff and jump off. The pain gripped Gary’s stomach again,
as if he were the one going over the cliff. He relived the moment
when he had almost fallen.

When Alfred stopped screaming, Gary swiveled
his head and looked for Penny. She was on her knees, staring at the
spot where Alfred had last been visible, with her mouth open. The
first feeling that came to him was relief that Penny was alive and
apparently unhurt. And joy at how beautiful she looked. An ache in
his heart replaced the pain in his stomach and showed how much he
needed her.

Penny saw him at that moment and said,
“Gary, are you hurt?” She stood up.

“I’m fine.” He winced as he said it. “Aside
from my shoulder. I fell on it. And I think the bullet grazed my
cheek.” He tried to lift his hand to touch his cheek, but was
stopped by the tape that bound his arms together.

“You poor sweetheart. You’re bleeding.”

Penny hobbled toward him. He met her
halfway. She had a dazed look in her eyes, but she inspected his
shoulder and his cheek, being careful not to hurt him.

“There’s a scratch on your cheek, but it
doesn’t look too bad.”

“I’m all right, honey. Really. What about
you? Did Alfred hurt you?”

“My ears are ringing. He hit me but he
didn’t hurt me. He never hurt me. He was going to kill you.” She
repeated, “He was going to kill you,” as she turned Gary around and
unwrapped the tape from his hands.

She fumbled a bit, and when Gary saw her
hand he realized that it was swollen. It could have been much
worse. He could have killed her.

“You’d better get some clothes on.”

She looked down at her body in disbelief, as
if she had forgotten she was naked. She laughed, hysterically.

“Clothes? Who needs clothes? I want to see
Alfred. I want to make sure…”

They walked to the edge of the cliff
together. Gary held onto Penny, not convinced that she was
completely rational. He didn’t want to lose her now that the danger
from Alfred had passed. They looked straight down. Gary wasn’t
usually afraid of heights, but his stomach felt very queasy.

They could see Alfred’s body lying on the
rocks below. The inhuman positions of his head and limbs convinced
them that he wouldn’t bother them anymore. Penny appeared to be
fascinated by the sight of Alfred. Gary was afraid she would forget
where she was. He was getting dizzy. He stepped back from the edge,
pulling her with him. He put his arm around her and walked her to
her clothes.

As Penny got dressed, she said, “Gary, I’m a
bad person. You heard what I said. I’ve done terrible things. I
don’t deserve you.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

He embraced her. “You risked your life to
save mine. I will never forget that. I love you. That’s all that
matters.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After spending more than a quarter of a
century as a pioneer in the computer industry, Alan Cook is well
into his second career as a writer.

Run into Trouble
is about a footrace along the California coast in
1969 during the Cold War. But is the Cold War about to heat up?
Drake and Melody, who worked undercover together in former lives,
need to find the answer before all hell breaks loose.

The Hayloft: a 1950s
mystery
and prize-winning
Honeymoon for Three
feature Gary Blanchard, first as a high school senior who has
to solve the murder of his cousin, and ten years later as a
bridegroom who gets more than he bargained for on his
honeymoon.

Hotline to Murder
takes place at a crisis hotline in Bonita Beach,
California. When a listener is murdered, Tony and Shahla team up to
uncover the strange worlds of their callers and find the
killer.

His Lillian Morgan
mysteries,
Catch a Falling Knife
and
Thirteen
Diamonds
, explore the secrets of
retirement communities. Lillian, a retired mathematics professor
from North Carolina, is smart, opinionated, and loves to solve
puzzles, even when they involve murder.

Alan splits his time
between writing and walking, another passion. His inspirational,
prize-winning book,
Walking the World:
Memories and Adventures
, has information
and adventure in equal parts. He is also the author of
Walking to Denver
, a
light-hearted, fictional account of a walk he did.

Freedom’s Light:
Quotations from History’s Champions of Freedom
, contains quotations from some of our favorite historical
figures about personal freedom.
The Saga
of Bill the Hermit
is a narrative poem
about a hermit who decides that the single life isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be.

Alan lives with his wife,
Bonny, on a hill in Southern California. His website is
alancook.50megs.com
.