Sue (9 page)

Against Melvin’s wishes, Sue won
out.

The next morning she dressed in a
knee-length black skirt and white long-sleeved blouse. She finished the outfit
with pantyhose, a black dress jacket, and low black heels. Using enough mousse
to stick an elephant to a wall, Sue managed to coerce her hair into a chic style.
Mascara, blush, and a hint of lipstick and she was ready to go.

Sue drove along the winding drive
to the
Paginacia
Country Club, party spot for Cyrus’s
elite. Entering through the front door, she approached a stiff-lipped woman who
stood behind a counter. “May I help you?”

“I have an interview with Ms.
McCloskey.”

“Oh.” The woman looked down her
nose at Sue and her tone grew frosty.
“Name?”

“Susan Cox.”

“Please wait.” The woman indicated
several seats scattered around the foyer. “I’ll announce you.”

The lobby was dominated by an
enormous Christmas tree, beautifully decorated. Holiday
music played softly through hidden speakers. Sue removed her coat and draped it
over an arm. Four or five minutes later a well-dressed woman appeared. “Susan?”
She held out her hand and Sue shook it firmly. “I’m Ms. McCloskey.
If you’d walk this way, please.”
She motioned down an ornate
hallway.

Sue almost
chuckled,
remembering more than one movie where someone said that and the person
following mimicked the gait of the person in front. Sue didn’t think she could
pull it off if she wanted to. This woman walked with ease in five-inch stilts.
Her brown suit fit perfectly and her blond hair was secured in a loose bun at
the base of her neck. She led Sue into a large office and indicated a seat. Sue
sat, smoothing her coat over her lap.

Opening a folder with long fingers
capped by inch-long nails, Ms. McCloskey scanned the pages. “I see here that
your last place of employment was a nursing home. Is that correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Actually, that appears to be your
only job. Why is that?”

“Well, I was working while going to
college.”

“And did you graduate?”

“No, I had an accident and had to
leave college for a time.”

“Accident?”

“I’d rather not speak of it. It’s
personal.” Sue could see her chance of a job here slipping away.

Ms. McCloskey remained silent for a
few minutes, gazing into the folder and tapping her nails on the polished desk.
Finally she looked up. “The position available is tending bar. Have you any
experience mixing drinks?”

Sue’s heart fell. “No, I’m afraid I
haven’t.” She was about to thank the woman for her time when she smiled
approvingly at Sue.

“Excellent.”

“Sorry?” Sue asked.

“We don’t want our lounge staff to
have preconceived notions on how a drink should be mixed. We have our own
unique repertoire of beverages here. Our clientele are used to our eclectic
specialties and wouldn’t be happy with something…ordinary.”

“I see,” Sue said, not really
seeing at all.

“Are you available to work in the
evenings?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“We would start you out at seven
dollars and fifty-five cents an hour. This, of course, is before tips; and I’m
pleased to say our members are very generous with gratuities as long as the
service is good. You would be required to study the book of cocktails and learn
the most common ASAP.
For more complicated drinks, and while
you’re still learning, the book will be at your disposal behind the counter.
We will supply one uniform and you may purchase more as you see fit. Your
uniform must always be spotless and wrinkle-free. You must be available every
Friday and Saturday evening and will pick up at least two nights during the
week. Are you interested?”

“When do I start?” Sue asked, with
the first genuine smile since she’d entered the premises.

“We’ll start you on a Monday. That
will give you several days to accustom yourself with your duties before the
busy weekend. How about you arrive around four-thirty this coming Monday and
I’ll introduce you to your co-workers? Martin is our head-bartender. He trains
new employees and helps them adjust. Why don’t you fill out these forms while I
get you a copy of the drinks manual?”

Sue was left alone. She finished
the forms, received a uniform, ordered two more, and left with her manual. Life
was looking up.

The first day on her new job, Sue
was all thumbs. The other staff members were nice for the most part, but she
couldn’t help feeling they somehow knew who she was and ached to question her
about Zeke. It was paranoia, she admitted to herself, since there was no way
they could guess what she’d been through. Her parents had been careful about
how much they told family members, let alone strangers.

There was so much to learn and she
made an effort to remember as much as she could and diligently made notes of
everything. She’d been on the job less than a week and was just gaining some
confidence when a pair of middle-aged society ladies settled at the bar to wait
for a luncheon companion who’d been delayed. One was Edwina Harrington, a
wealthy widow Sue had only seen at a distance up until now. The staff loved to
gossip about her. The other was Nan
Plohsy
, a local
attorney. Sue had served her before and found her to be a stingy tipper.

As Sue prepared their drinks, she
couldn’t help overhearing their conversation.

“I’m hiring a new houseboy,” Mrs.
Harrington told her friend with a salacious grin. “I put him through the
interview process today.” She caressed the pearl necklace at her throat.

“Oh, really!”
Nan snickered quietly. “And how did he perform?”

“He’ll do. Of course, he’s nothing
like Zeke. Now that boy had some special talents.”

“I remember. He certainly showed me
a good time down at Hilton Head.” Nan picked several
pretzels from the dish on the bar and tongued the salt crystals suggestively. “Whatever
happened to him?”

“You don’t want to know.
Got in some trouble with the law.”
Mrs. Harrington rolled
her eyes. “Anyway, the new boy is going to work out just fine.”

With trembling hands, Sue placed
their drinks in front of them and stared at Mrs. Harrington.

“Thank you,” the woman said, then
noticed Sue’s intent look. “Is there a problem?”

“No, no,” Sue stammered, trying to
cover her distress.

“Then, move along; give us some
privacy.” Mrs. Harrington’s hard eyes challenged her. “We’ll let you know if we
need anything else.”

Sue pulled off her apron and sought
out her boss. “Martin, I need to leave.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.
“Leave? Are you sick?”

Sue twisted her apron in her hands.
“Not exactly.
I just have an appointment I forgot
about. It won’t take long and I’ll come right back.”

“I wish you’d have told me about
that when I made out the schedule.” He placed his clipboard on a shelf. “I’ll
go cover for you until you get back, but don’t make a habit of this, Sue.”

She forced a smile. “I won’t. I
promise. And thank you.”

“No problem.” He returned her smile
and let his eyes travel over her body. “Hope you’ll remember this if I ever
need a favor.”

Sue gave him a sharp look. “What
kind of favor?”

His eyes were innocent as he met
her gaze. “You know
,
if I ever need you to fill in or
something.”

Relieved, and itching to go, Sue
said. “Oh, okay. Sure.”

She could feel Martin’s eyes on her
as she hurried away. Before going through the door, she heard him mumble, “She
doesn’t even know how hot she is.”

Spinning on the spot, Sue demanded,
“What did you say?”

“What? Oh! I said
,
it’s hot in here. I need step out for a minute.”

“Oh, okay.” Fumbling with the
timecard, Sue clocked out and grabbed her coat.

All the way to her car, she fumed.
There weren’t that many men named Zeke. It looked like her lover had been
banging that rich woman the whole time he was seeing her. It wasn’t hard to put
two and two together and it dawned on Sue that Mrs. Harrington was the
mother
who had always demanded so much of his time. So, he’d been cheating on her. Why
it should hurt so much now, after all she’d been through, she didn’t
understand. But, it
did
hurt.

Once again, Sue drove to the police
station, guts churning.

“I have information on my case,”
she told the desk officer. “I need to see Detective Sanders.” She drummed her
fingers nervously on the counter while she waited.

The detective seemed tired as she
led Sue into the same conference room they’d used before. “Sit down, Ms. Cox.”

She waved away the offer. “Look, I
just started working at the country club. I overheard a woman named Edwina
Harrington mention that she had a houseboy named Zeke. I’m sure it was him! You
need to question her right now!”

“Susan, I want you to calm down,”
the detective said.

“No! I mean it. She might know
something!”

“Listen to me for a minute. We’ve
already questioned Mrs. Harrington. We tracked the social security number he
was using and it led us to her. She’s cooperated completely with our investigation
and filled in some of the blanks.”

Sue stopped and stared at her.
“What do you mean?”

“Well, we know Zeke had a live-in
position with her while he was here.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Sue gripped
the back of a chair until her knuckles turned white. “Were you ever going to
share that with me?”

“First, we are not going to call
you every time we receive information on this case. Your part, unfortunate as
it was, is over. If we ever apprehend Zeke your testimony will be needed;
otherwise, it’s out of your hands. Besides, the whole thing was a dead end.”
The detective slapped the tabletop lightly. “We gathered no information from
her that will help us find him. He lied to her, too. And, he left nothing
behind when he took off with you.”

“Well, that’s just great.” Sue
jerked her purse strap up over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” Detective Sanders
shrugged apologetically. “You just have to understand how the system works.”

“Yeah, right.”
Sue turned toward the door. “I wish you’d realize how important it is to me
that he be found.
Stopped.”

“We do understand. We want that,
too.” She followed Sue from the room. “Like I told you before, you need to work
on rebuilding your life and leave the police work to us. Understand?” Her voice
was kind but firm.

“Sure.
Whatever
you say.”
Sue walked out without a backward glance.

That night she dreamed of Zeke
again. This time he taunted her with talk of his
mother
and how well she
took care of his needs. “
All
my needs, Susie,” he murmured with that
slow, sexy smile of his. “It’s all good.”

She woke up the next morning
feeling sick to her stomach.

Chapter 13

“He told me I belong to him, that
I’m his and always will be. At first, it made me feel good, special. He said it
many times and in my mind it seems real. I can’t escape it; it’s my destiny
whether I want it or not.” Sue glared at Dr. Camden, chest out and head high.

The doctor remained calm, flipped
back through the notes in her file. “I see here where he also told you that you
love mocha cappuccino. Is that true?”

“No. I hate it.”

“And let’s see...” The therapist
paused to read. “You said he told several people that you and he were
photojournalists from New York.
Are you a photojournalist?”

Sue shook her
head,
face hot with embarrassment and anger.

“Are you from New
York? Have you ever lived there?”

“No, but he did!”

“Or so he said.”

She turned a page in her notes. “He
claimed to live with his mother. But you found out he had a live-in position
with a woman here in town. No relation to him.”

Sue’s defiance evaporated and she
slumped in her seat. “Okay, okay. I get it. He said things that weren’t true.
But did it ever occur to you that maybe in his mind they
were
true?” She
rubbed at an invisible spot on the arm of the chair and spoke so quietly it was
almost inaudible
. “Maybe he’s got multiple
personalities or something.
Maybe that’s why he was so sweet
and tender sometimes and so angry and cruel other times.”
She sat
straight up, facial expression guileless as a child’s. “I mean, if that’s the
case, then he’s ill and can’t be held responsible. It’s a sickness; he can’t
help it.”

The doctor made a note,
then
raised her head to look at Sue. “What you’re talking
about is
Dissociative
Identity Disorder. From what
you’ve told me, Zeke does not exhibit symptoms of this condition. Where did you
get this idea?”

“The internet.”

“May I make a suggestion?”

Sue nodded.

“Next time you’re researching
diagnoses, look up Antisocial Personality Disorder. I’m sure you’ll recognize
Zeke.” She removed her glasses, set them on the desk, and rubbed her eyes
lightly. Then she turned her gaze to Sue. “I want you to listen to me. I mean,
really listen. THERE IS NO ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE FOR ZEKE’S BEHAVIOR. It’s that
simple.”

“I know.” Sue stared down at her
hands. “It’s crazy because by the end of our time together, I couldn’t wait to
get away from him. I was repulsed by him, disgusted with the way he treated me,
and terrified of dying. After he killed Brenda, I just assumed my life was over
too. And if he’d had his way, I would be dead. So I don’t know why my mind
wants to remember the way he was in the beginning and just wipe out the bad
memories. Sometimes it feels like I’ll never be free of him.”

“You are free of him, Sue. It’s
just taking a little while for you to accept it.”

“I’m trying. But sometimes it feels
like he has some kind of power or something.”
And, he’s coming for me. But I
can’t tell you that because I want it to happen. And I’m afraid you’ll prevent
it.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they haven’t caught him
yet.”

“It’s only a matter of time.
They’ve got a DNA profile on him by now.”

Sue’s smile was cynical. “He’s
smart. He’ll figure out a way around that.”

“Chances are he’s not as smart as
he’s led you to believe.” Dr. Camden wiped her glasses with a tissue and put
them back on. “Tell you what; we’ve got about half an hour left. Let’s have a
look at your journal.”

Sue pulled the notebook from her
bag and placed it in the doctor’s hand. She chose a recent entry in which Sue
had written about her self-defense class. They didn’t return to the subject of
Zeke for the rest of the appointment.

That evening when she and
Melvin went to the gym, she tried to work off her frustration on the
elliptical.

Melvin kept looking over at
her; he finally stopped his machine and approached her. Sue reduced her pace in
order to listen to him.

He wiped his face with a towel
then fixed his earnest gaze on her. “You need to go into it gradually, Sue. You
should warm up first.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she panted.
“I’m doing fine.”

“You can hardly breathe,”
Melvin pointed out. “I just don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Sue bristled but acquiesced.
“Fine.
I’ll slow down.”

“Just until
you get used to it.
That’s all I’m saying.”

“Okay, okay.” Sue clenched her
jaw to avoid snapping at him. The aggravating thing was that he happened to be
right. Her muscles ached, the soles of her feet stung like crazy, and she felt
as if her lungs would explode.

Before their next visit to the
gym, Melvin gave her a fitness magazine to peruse. Flipping through the pages
as he drove, she couldn’t suppress a smile when she found one article circled
in black marker and starred several times. It’s title: The Wisdom of Warming
Up Before A
Workout.

“What’s this?” She held it up
so he could see it.

He shrugged, returned his eyes
to the road.
“Told you so.”

She punched him playfully in
the arm.

“
Ow
,”
he said, feigning pain. “You’re mean. I’m going to tell on you.”

“Who you
gonna
tell?”

“That big
body builder.”

“Which one?” she teased.
“Helga or Bruce?”

He pretended to think it over.
“Helga, I think. She’s tougher. Plus, she likes me better than she likes you.”

“How do you know that?” Sue
tried not to giggle.

“She told me so,” he lied, as
he pulled into the gym parking lot.

Sue rolled her eyes and
smirked. Still, when they got inside she went through a warm-up before her
workout.

Chapter 14

Each meeting, Dr. Camden had given
Sue rein to choose which topic they’d address, at least to a point; though, sometimes
she’d steer her in certain directions. “I’ve been waiting for this memory to
fully emerge. I know it’s one of the most painful we’ve delved into so far,”
she said, referring to the murder of Brenda.

“I don’t know how to find
absolution. It haunts me.” Sue overrode her fear and allowed the sickening
memories to surface, knowing it was safe to do so here in this office. Still,
she curled her feet under herself, tried to push deep into the cushions
surrounding her, and spoke in a shaky voice.

“Why don’t you tell me about it,”
Dr. Camden said, laying her notepad in her lap.

“See, Zeke decided we were going to
find him a woman. He pretty much told me how it was going to go down.” She shot
a sideways glance at the doctor. “You know, it’s like you told me, a lot of the
control he had over me was mental. But some of it was also situational. I
didn’t think I was going to live at this point, so I decided to try to protect
as many other people as possible.”

“What do you mean?”

“That night, we went to a bar so Zeke
could scope out the women, find one to his liking. I had planned to make a
scene, scream for help,
somehow
get away. But Zeke
seemed to know what I had planned. He threatened to kill all the people in the
place if I didn’t cooperate and told me it would be my fault if that happened.
He told me he had a gun in his pocket. He’d threatened me with it several
times, in fact. The first time was when we were in the internet cafe, then with
an elderly woman outside the public bathroom, and again with a convenience
store clerk. Anyway, even though I never saw a gun, I couldn’t take the
chance.” Sue took a deep breath, a light sheen of sweat glistened on her brow.

“As it was, we didn’t even get
inside since I didn’t have my purse; you know, no ID. By that time my mind was
so screwed up and foggy from the pills he kept forcing on me, I wasn’t tracking
all that well. The truth is, when I agreed to help him pick up a woman, he
wasn’t really giving me a choice.”

“Anyone would be intimidated by a
gun.”

“That’s true, but I’d found out the
hard way that Zeke was dangerous, even without a weapon. I was personally more
afraid of his knife. A gunshot would be quick, but he could take his time with
the knife. He loved that thing; gave it a pet name.
Big Ben.
That’s what he used on Brenda.” Sue tried to suppress a sob but was
unsuccessful.
“And eventually on me.”

Now Sue buried her face in her
hands, trying to block out the visual nightmare that still woke her in the
middle of the night. “Deep down I understood that he planned to kill her, but
at the same time I just couldn’t believe Zeke could do that. Maybe he’d hurt
her a little. But kill her? I didn’t think so. So I went along. Oh, god. I
helped him trick that poor woman into coming with us. It’s my fault she’s
dead.”

“Tell me what happened.”

Sue lifted her head, lowered her
hands, and stared at a spot over the therapist’s head. Her eyes darted back and
forth as she relived the event. “We picked her up in the parking lot of the
nightclub. She was drunk, staggering around, dropping her keys. Zeke told her
there were DUI checkpoints set up around town and offered to give her a ride
home.” Sue took a deep breath and reached for the glass of water sitting on the
end table next to her. Her hands shook so badly she almost knocked the drink
over, just barely managing to catch it. After taking a sip, she kept the glass,
rolling it between her palms, looking inside. After gathering her thoughts, she
continued, “It was all a lie; Zeke had made me rehearse things to say to her,
to put her at ease. So I suggested that she party with us at this old abandoned
building and she agreed. Once we were there, Zeke took over. He got her even
more drunk, gave her some pills. He made me take something, too, and then,
following prior instructions, I said I was tired and went into the other room.
That’s where I was while he tortured and killed her. That’s where I was when I
heard her screaming. But there was nothing I could do; I couldn’t help her.”
Sue set her glass down. “And the horrible thing is
,
she
wouldn’t have been there if not for me. It’s my fault she’s dead.” She pulled
her knees to her chest, dropped her head into the crook of her arms, and shook
with silent sobs.