Zeke (23 page)

“It’s okay. I’m in a motel. But,
Mom, I don’t want to come home,” Sue said in a low voice. “I’m living my own
life now, okay? I just called to tell you I’m fine so you wouldn’t worry. And
to say I love you both.”

She could still hear her parents’
excited voices as she laid the phone gently back in its cradle.

“Sue?” Zeke called from the
bathroom. “What are you doing?”

Sue froze.
Had he heard her?

Then, her fears were allayed when he
continued, “Come in here and wash my back for me.”

“Okay, coming.”

When she entered the room, Zeke
pulled back the shower curtain and she stared at his body, glistening under the
spray. Everything about him was beautiful, she thought. So symmetrical, so
lean, so sensuous, so graceful, so strong. She couldn’t give him up, she just
couldn’t. She’d made the right decision to remain. As she watched him, he eyed
her knowingly and reached down to fondle his privates. An invitation.

Sue undressed hurriedly and stepped
into the shower. She soaped his back, felt his muscles yield beneath her
fingers. He turned around and she lathered the front of his body, lingering
over his chest. Moving her hands over his abdomen and lower, Sue felt her pulse
race. He backed under the spray and rinsed off, then grabbed her thigh,
hoisting it up. Kneeling slightly, he worked his way upward and they clung
together under the warm water, moving slowly as the sounds of their passion
echoed off the tile.

Afterwards, they tenderly dried
each other and crawled into bed. Sue experienced that odd mixture of exquisite
bliss and piercing sorrow that became more pronounced the further she got from
home. Everything would be fine, she told herself. Zeke was relaxed now and
things were calm. All he needed was her love, and his mood swings would level
out. The love of a good woman has changed many a man, she assured herself.

“You ever think about marriage,
Susie?” Zeke’s voice was dreamy.

She felt a warm softening inside.
“Sure,” she replied, scared to say too much. Worried he wouldn’t go on.

“Well, someday, we might want to
settle down and get married. Have a nice house of our own, maybe raise a couple
of little Zekes. I’m going to ask you to marry me someday, bunny, as soon as we
get all the running out of our systems. When that time comes, I hope you’ll say
yes.”

“You know I will,” Sue whispered
happily.

Over her shoulder, Zeke couldn’t
help but smirk. He repressed his scorn, held his silence, and let the moment
flow.

Curled around each other, warm and
sated, they slept like hibernating animals, waking only once to make love
before falling back to sleep.

The Greater Evil

Will Falstaff’s cell phone rang. He
picked up to hear Roxie’s excited voice.

“Will, the girl called home,” she
said. “I just got off the phone with her father.”

“Tell me they got a phone number.”
Will prayed the Cox family had at least made the small concession to modern
conveniences and gotten caller ID.

“Sorry. They don’t have caller ID.”
Roxie heard the disappointment in Will’s sigh.

“What did the girl say?”

“She didn’t talk long, and she
whispered like she was afraid of being overheard. But she
said
she was
okay and that she didn’t want to come home. She also said they were in a
motel.”

Roxie answered Will’s next question
before he asked. “No. She didn’t give the name or the town. She hung up before
they had a chance to ask her much of anything.”

“Damn. I thought we might get
lucky.” Will realized he was chasing a young woman who would probably refuse to
talk to him, much less allow him to take her home to her parents. Nonetheless,
he had a bad feeling about this situation.

“In light of what she told her
parents, do they still want me to continue?”

“Absolutely. They’re more
determined than ever to find her.”

“Good. So am I.”

He didn’t intend to give up until
he saw her face to face and heard from her own mouth that she wanted to stay
with this character. If that happened, Will would make a decision about how to
proceed. It might well be the lesser of two evils to subject her to prosecution
in order to get her out of the clutches of this ghost, a man Will was beginning
to regard as the greater evil.

Will pulled his thoughts together
and mentally reviewed his schedule. “Okay, here’s what I want you to do. I’ve
already stopped for the night and I’m too wasted to drive anymore, not safely
anyway. You bring in Melvin, offer double pay. Both of you start calling all
motels within two hundred miles of my location.” Will read the address from a
small notepad on the bedside table. “Are you still at the office?”

“No, but I’m dressing as we speak.”

Will briefly considered Roxie’s
attire, or lack thereof, and paused as a salacious image popped unbidden into
his mind. With a shake of his head, he brought himself back to the subject at hand
and told her what questions to ask the motel clerks. He knew she could figure
this out on her own but he desperately wanted to find this girl. He sensed she
wasn’t as safe as she might think.

“Okay, got it,” Roxie agreed to his
tactics.

“Anything else going on that needs
my attention?” Will asked, though he couldn’t bring himself to care much at
this time. Still, they were partners and he needed to be kept apprised of all
their business dealings.

“We’re still working on the Morris
Industries case, but haven’t gotten far. Oh, and we got a call. Cheating spouse
thing.”

“I hate those kinds of cases.” Will
sighed and drummed his fingers on the cheap blonde nightstand.

“Me, too,” Roxie agreed.

“But, we took it, didn’t we?”

“Of course. I’ll give you more info
tomorrow. Right now I’m gonna head back to the office and get Melvin on the
line.”

“Good luck.” Will signed off,
knowing they’d need all the luck they could get to find Sue.

Will sat on the side of the bed,
thinking. Unless he got new info he would still take the time to explore the
abandoned asylum that was next on his list of possible stops for the pair.

Stripping to his boxers, Will
climbed between the thin motel sheets. He tossed and turned for some time
before sleep spread its net over his mind and dragged him into oblivion.

Candy is Dandy

The next morning, Sue awakened to a
series of soft kisses leaving a delicious trail of excitement down her back.
Stretching luxuriously, she rolled from her side to her belly, burying her face
in the pillow. She detected a faint trace of bleach on the case and it reminded
her of home. She hurriedly pushed the thought aside.

Zeke’s mouth moved lower and her
heartbeat accelerated as she mentally followed his trail down. Gently cupping
her bottom, he covered her cheeks with soft kisses. She felt tingling warmth
spread through her pelvis and down her legs.

Drifting on the sensations – her
eyes sleepy, the touch of Zeke’s lips, the clean scent of bleach, and the warm
mattress beneath her – she was awash in pleasure. Her ecstasy was shattered by
a sharp pain on her left buttock. The shock propelled her off the bed, her foot
accidentally connecting with Zeke’s jaw.

“Son of a bitch!” she wailed. “You
bit me!”

She ran naked to the bathroom and
locked the door behind her. Sobbing, she turned and looked over her shoulder in
the mirror. Scarlet teeth marks stood out lividly on her pale flesh. “You bit
me!” she hollered, the words bouncing off the tile. “You bastard.”

“Well, you
kicked
me,” Zeke
said from the other side of the door. He was standing very close; she could
hear him breathing. “And don’t call me names.”

“I can’t believe you bit me.” She
rubbed the inflamed spot with her fingertips. She could feel the ridges, but it
appeared the skin was unbroken.

“It was just a love bite,” he said
quietly. “Some people like that sort of thing. I thought you might. Now I know
you don’t and I won’t do it again. And, don’t forget. You kicked me. It feels
like my jaw is cracked.”

“I didn’t mean to kick you and you
know it.” Sue was a bit calmer but still shaky.

“I don’t know that.”

“Well, I’m telling you. You hurt me
and I jumped. I didn’t kick you on purpose.”

“Okay. I hurt you and you hurt me.
How about we apologize to each other and just forget the whole thing? You know
I love you, bunny.”

“I know.” Sue wavered, beginning to
see some humor in her automatic reaction and its outcome.

“You can bite me back if you want.
Teach me a lesson I won’t soon forget. Give me a taste of my own medicine. Make
me rue the day I was born.”

She giggled lightly before
unlocking the door. It opened slowly. Zeke leaned against the door jam, wearing
a timid grin. He pulled her to him and held her close. She stood, arms at her
sides, and allowed it. Finally, she thawed and returned the hug.

“Let’s go buy you some clothes,” he
said. “Really nice ones.”

“Really?” Sue brightened. “Okay.”

The ice had nearly all melted, but
a cold drizzle was keeping things wet and uncomfortable. The wind was sharp,
piercing their clothing. Water dripped monotonously from the trees and eaves
around town.

Edison wasn’t exactly the Mecca of
fashion, but they did locate a small boutique downtown. The dedicated employee
brought item after item to the dressing room. This, Sue concluded, might be the
reason for the steep prices of the merchandise. Most stores didn’t give a
shopper this much personal attention. Or, maybe the girl was simply bored, with
Sue and Zeke the only customers.

Sue wished the clerk would knock
before barging in. She was embarrassed that she had no underwear; Zeke had
thrown it all away.

For the first ten minutes, Zeke sat
in a chair up front. Every so often, Sue would emerge from the dressing area
and model an outfit for him, the clerk beaming in the background. He only gave
thumbs up to the skirts and dresses, thumbs down to anything with legs.
Finally, Sue asked the clerk not to bring any garments with legs.

“I think I’m gonna walk around a
bit, check out the other stores,” he said. “I’ll be back in a little while.
Take your time.”

Sue nodded and went back to try on
more outfits. She had bent to step out of a dark wine skirt when she heard a
gasp behind her. Standing with several outfits draped over her arm was the
sales clerk, her eyes fixed on the bite mark. “Your boyfriend out there, he do
that to you?”

Sue stood quickly and backed into
the corner.

“Let me see it.” She took Sue
gently by the shoulders and turned her. “Hmm. Well, it’s not the worst I’ve
ever seen. Probably won’t scar; you’ll have a bruise, though.”

Sue met her eyes and a disturbing
knowledge passed between them. “Leave him before it gets worse,” the clerk
hissed. She said no more about the injury but proceeded to show Sue the clothes
she had brought in.

As she exited the dressing room,
Sue’s eyes were drawn to a pair of boots, and she ran admiring fingers over the
soft leather. Noticing the price, she stepped back with a sigh and turned away,
resigned to making do with what she had.

Zeke returned just as Sue had
finished making her selections. He smiled at her and bathed her in a look of affection
and tenderness. The clerk wouldn’t look at Zeke, instead, busied herself
ringing up Sue’s purchases and folding them carefully into a slick pink tote
sack. When she handed Sue her change, she held onto it just a second too long,
giving her a meaningful look before pulling her hand back. It was a look that
said, r
emember what I told you
, a message so clear to Sue it was almost
as if the girl had spoken the words aloud. Zeke took notice, but said nothing
inside the store.

Sue left the shop with a wine-colored
sarong, a tiered skirt in shades of green ranging from emerald to dark forest,
three pairs of black thigh-high stockings, a loose silk blouse in a cream tone,
along with three other tops. She had fingered some sexy lingerie but knowing
Zeke would veto the purchase, she left the silky items hanging on the racks.

“You hungry?” Zeke opened the van
door for her, a rare courtesy.

“I could eat something,” Sue said
as she slid inside, tucking her purchases carefully in the back. They stopped
at a diner and indulged in two breakfast platters, overflowing with pancakes,
bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Sue found she was ravenous, and between
the two of them, they cleared their plates. Zeke discouraged her from leaving a
tip, saying the waitress received pay for her work and didn’t need anything
extra. After Zeke turned away, Sue slipped three crumpled one-dollar bills onto
the table, understanding servers weren’t paid well at all and depended on tips
to make a decent wage.

When they returned to the motel,
they stopped near the lobby to buy some sodas and snacks for later. Once in
their room, Zeke asked Sue to model her new clothes for him. He told her how
sexy she looked as she paraded self-consciously around the room. He stared at
her with open desire and let his eyes rove her body. He coaxed her out of the
last set of garments quickly and laid her back on the bed.

“What happened back there with the
salesclerk?” he asked nonchalantly as he played with her breasts.

“What do you mean?” Sue was cautious.

“I mean that look she gave you,
what was that about?”

“What look?” Sue’s pulse quickened.

“You know,” he said, now running
his hands down her belly, idly circling her navel.

Sue’s chest tightened. “No, I
really don’t know. What do you mean?”

“I think she liked you,” he said.

Sue felt the tension melt from her.
For a second, she had wondered if he somehow overheard the warning the clerk
had given her.