Illusion of Luck (6 page)

No answer.

The old motel had not
upgraded to a key card entry system, so she was about to reach into
her purse for her lock picking tool. Then she remembered what her
dad had taught her:
Always try the easy
way first
. So, she tried the doorknob
and was surprised to find it unlocked.

She opened the door and saw Melanie naked on
the bed. She stepped in, closed the door and rushed to her friend’s
side.

“
Oh, Sweetie, you told me
you weren’t going to do this anymore.” It was easy to see that
Melanie had been dead for hours.

She reached into her purse for the latex
gloves and put them on. Then she took out her little screwdriver,
turned Melanie’s purse on its back to remove the four screws, and
detached the bottom section. She removed the memory card from the
thin video camera that was mounted inside, and replaced it with the
blank card she had taken from Melanie’s desk. She was careful not
to exert too much strain on the small wire that ran from the
camera to the lens, which was located in the center of the flower
on the front of the purse.

Rebecca reassembled it, picked up the used
memory card, and studied her friend’s body. So beautiful. Such a
sweet girl. She shouldn’t have come here. But she didn’t deserve to
die for it.

“
I know—I’m tampering with
the crime scene,” she said to her friend. “But I can’t stand the
thought of the police seeing this video. They’d be laughing and
getting their jollies watching the creep abuse you and murder you.
And I’m just not gonna allow that.

“
But don’t you worry about
your case falling through the cracks, Honey. ‘Cause I’m
all over it
. He’s a
dead man. I promise you—I don’t care where I have to go, I’m gonna
track down the slimy snake and chop his ugly head off.

“
Wait. Correction: I’m gonna
chop off
both
of his heads. The little one first.”

She tried to imagine a smile on Melanie’s
face.

**********

Larry awoke to birds
chirping outside his cabin windows. He had slept like a baby after
pulling off the perfect murder, followed up by a
near-perfect
murder.

After leaving the motel he had walked to a
pay phone and called a taxi. He had told the driver to drop him off
at a certain apartment complex in Denison to make it look like he
lived there. Then he had walked nearly two miles to his cabin.

It had taken longer than he thought it
would, because he had to hide every time a car drove by. The last
thing he wanted was to hitch a ride or to later be remembered as
the guy out walking the roads in a trench coat at 12:30 AM.

Surely he would have some reader feedback by
now, he thought. It was 11:30 AM. He had stayed up until 2:30
writing the next chapter.

He went to his laptop and logged into his
author account. Wow! He already had thirteen comments.

Very exciting—can’t wait for the next
chapter.

Cool, he thought.

I stayed up late reading this chapter and IT
WAS WORTH EVERY MINUTE!

Yes, it was.

Your murder scenes are so real and detailed
that I nearly vomited.

Excellent, he thought. After all these years
with no recognition of his considerable talent, finally the
public had come to its senses. Soon he would be laughing at those
idiot agents who had rejected him.

With his first six books, he
couldn’t even
give
them away.

Now, he was writing a masterpiece—a
best-seller!

You’re my new favorite author.

That’s right—I’m the best.

Your characters and your scenes sound so
real, it made me wonder… Is this fiction, or did some lunatic
really kill these women?

What if somebody in Denison or Sherman were
to discover his online book? His story was being inspired by his
real crimes. And even though he was using the pseudonym, Barry
Undermine, for this book, he knew it could be traced back to
him.

He was living a very dangerous life,
especially after killing that lady lawyer. But he could not stop—he
had quickly become a fame junkie. The reader raves were his
heroin.

And
nothing
would stand between him
and his next fix.

Chapter
8

“
Hey, Man, we’d better get
going soon. Our reservation is for 7:00,” said Sandy.

He and Greg had slept late, ordered pizza,
and spent the afternoon talking shop and reminiscing about their
college days.

“
Where are we
going?”

“
It’s a
surprise.”

“
I don’t know if
trust
your
kind of surprise.”

Sandy laughed. “What? You’re afraid of
having too much fun? It’s your last night of freedom.”

“
But that’s just the point—I
don’t
want
to
be free anymore.”

“
Look—after tomorrow night
you’re gonna be wearing the old husband handcuffs. All I’m asking
you to do is forget that for a while and just have some fun with
the old Sandman.”

“
Okay, I’ll try. As long as
you don’t get
too
crazy.”

“
Me, get crazy?”

“
Shut up. Just let me check
my email real quick.” Greg got up from the couch and walked to his
bedroom.

Sandy yelled from Greg’s comfy recliner.
“Why? You think you might have something from your wife-to-be?
That’s cheating. You two said you wouldn’t talk or see each other
until the wedding. And emails count as talking. And so do text
messages and instant messages. You can’t do any of that, Man.”

Sandy got up and walked into Greg’s bedroom
to see for himself.

“
I knew you couldn’t hold
out.”

“
No. It’s from one of my
students. He’s telling me he might have to miss his piano lesson on
Tuesday. Apparently, he didn’t read the email I sent out to
everybody announcing that I would be on my honeymoon next week. I
even posted it on my web page.”

“
I couldn’t do what you do,
Greg.”

“
What?”

“
Your students can cancel
their lessons at the last minute. And then you don’t get paid. You
have no control over it.
I
get paid whether my students
show up or not.”

“
That
would
be nice. But on the other
hand, all your students are the same age—late teens to early
twenties.”

“
So?”

“
So, isn’t that kinda
boring? I mean, you don’t get the joy of teaching piano to a six
year-old girl, or the fun of guitar lessons with a 67 year-old
man.”

“
Yeah, that must be a hoot.
I can’t believe I’m missing out on
that
.”

“
No, really—it’s pretty
cool, actually.”

“
If you say so. Now let’s go
eat. I’m starving.”

**********

“
Thanks again, Sandy. It was
delicious,” said Greg.

They got into Sandy’s car.

“
Okay. Now for your bachelor
party.”

“
What do you mean? I thought
that
was
my
bachelor party.”

“
Oh, no. A steak and a baked
potato do not a bachelor party make.”

“
Well, thank you for your
words of wisdom, Yoda.”

Sandy tried talking in Yoda’s voice. “Off to
the party now we flee. Cake of your bachelorhood you will see. Beer
shall you drink until you pee.”

Greg laughed. “That’s funny.”

“
Thank you.” Sandy smiled
broadly and nodded.

“
But not very
good
.”

Sandy pouted.

“
And anyway—I don’t
drink.”

“
That’s okay. Believe
me—you’ll still have fun.”

Greg didn’t like the looks
of the place—not that he could see it all that well. It was dark
outside, and even darker
inside
.

Sandy gave his name and a young woman
wearing a bikini led them to a room and showed them to their
chairs. Then she walked out.

“
Now what?” Greg had a bad
feeling.

“
Sit tight.”

Another young woman walked in to take their
drink orders. Sandy ordered a Bud Light and Greg asked for a Dr.
Pepper.

“
I wonder what Cynthia is
doing right now?”

“
Hey, you’re not supposed to
be thinking about her. Remember?”

“
Okay. I’ll
try
not
to.”

After a few minutes, the woman brought their
drinks. They had taken a few sips when a huge cardboard cake rolled
into the room. Two scantily-clad ladies pushed it into place, right
in front of Greg.

“
There’s your cake,” said
Sandy. “Make a wish.”

“
I wish we could just get
out of here.”

“
Oops, wrong
wish.”

A young woman jumped up from inside the cake
and it fell apart. Even in the dim light, Greg could see that her
breasts were enormous.

Before he could react, she sat down in his
lap, facing him.

He couldn’t get up, and didn’t know what to
do.

She reached to the center of her chest and
unhooked her spring-loaded bikini top and it flew off and hit Sandy
in the face.

Sandy caught it and held it there for a
moment to take a deep whiff. “Yee-ha!”

Greg’s zipper felt like it was about to rip
open.

The woman felt his excitement and rubbed her
crotch against it. Then she grabbed his head in both hands and
pulled it in between her huge breasts and held it there.

For the first time in his life, Greg feared
he had high blood pressure. He would surely die right here in this
woman’s arms, he thought. No, no, no!

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed
her away as he stood up.

She fell on the floor. “Hey—no rough stuff,
Dude.”

“
I’m sorry.” Greg helped her
to her feet.

She moved in close and tried to rub up
against him again, apparently thinking everything Greg had said and
done was just an act.

“
No, thanks.” He held out
his hand to stop her and accidentally made contact with a breast.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what my
friend
was getting me into. It’s
nothing against you. You’re beautiful and sexy, but—I’m
sorry.”

Sandy was laughing his head off.

**********

Cynthia had taken her mother out for dinner
and a movie.

“
So, what did you think of
the movie, Mom?”

“
Things would have gone a
lot better for that woman if she had married the right man in
the
first
place.”

“
Yeah.”

“
She knew that workaholic
businessman didn’t want kids. He told her so. But I guess she
figured he’d change his mind.”

“
Yeah. But he
didn’t.”

“
What about you and Greg?
Are you both sure you really want to have children?”

“
Yes, Mom. We’ve talked
about it a lot. And we’re glad that neither of us had any kids
already so we can have them together. We’re very excited about
it.”

“
Even at
your age
?”

“
I’m only 30. And Greg’s
just 35. That’s not too old. It’s not like when
you
were young, Mom. A lot of
couples wait longer now.”

“
Okay. Good. Because I
really
do
want grandkids.”

“
Then why are you trying to
talk me
out of it
, you silly woman?”

They laughed.

“
I just wanted to know if I
could
count
on it.”

“
You can count on it.
Okay?”

“
Great. When?”

Cynthia shot her an evil eye. “I’ll get back
to you on that.”

When they pulled into the driveway, Cynthia
noticed a package sitting at the front door. After she had parked
the car and they had gone inside, she went to the front porch,
picked up the package, and carried it into the living room.

“
What is it?” said
Beverly.

“
I don’t know.”

“
Who’s it from?”

“
Oh—it’s from my
Honey.”

Cynthia tore open the box and found a fancy
jewelry box inside. She opened it and was amazed at what she saw.
It was a beautiful heart-shaped diamond necklace. “Oh, Greg.”

“
Let me see,” said
Beverly.

Beverly took the box and studied the
necklace. “If these are real diamonds, this thing must have cost
him a fortune.”

“
Oh, here’s a
note.”

My dearest
Cindy
,

“
Cindy? That’s weird—he
never calls me Cindy. In fact,
nobody
does.”

When I saw this dazzling
necklace I thought of you and the love we share and I just had to
buy it for you. It doesn’t compare to your beauty, but it’s the
most I could afford
.