Blood Red (15 page)

But he was upset, just the same.

He’d left the lights on to savor every moment. He told her as much as he disrobed her. At first it was just the same as always, there was no connection, no difference between Jason and a hundred others she’d been with before. That suited her just fine. She didn’t want to experience anything different.

That changed when he went down on her, starting at the back of her neck and working his way slowly down her spine to her buttocks and then her sex. He did things with his tongue that left her shuddering, every muscle in her body drawn taught and her skin almost feverish with arousal.

She lost track of all time after a while and gave herself over to the sensations. It wasn’t love or even a parody of love; it was pure carnal knowledge and she reveled in it.

She was normally in control of what happened, but he never gave her a chance to take command. He assaulted her again and again with sensations that seemed to almost go beyond physical. It wasn’t like with the priests. That was different from this. That was natural. Whatever it was that Jason did, it seemed to defy reason and mock what she knew of the realms of possibility.

Eventually, he tired of foreplay and the actual sexual encounters began. Jason screamed several times and Maggie joined him. She didn’t drift into sated sleep; she was knocked into unconsciousness by the experience.

When she woke in the morning, Jason was making coffee. She knew she should have been tender at the very least, but she felt wonderful. It was nice to relax for a while before he came into the room and served her breakfast in bed.

She drank the coffee eagerly, almost scalding her tongue but not minding in the least. Her mouth tasted funny; a taste that she thought she knew but couldn’t place.

Richard Boyd was not a happy man. He was, in fact, a very annoyed police detective. His life would have been easier if people would have just stopped putting files into his IN box.

Instead, they kept giving him new cases.
Not a bad job
, he mused,
except that people around these parts are disappearing in a damned big hurry.
That was the problem; he wasn’t a homicide detective, he was just a schmuck in charge of missing persons.

He leaned up against the railing along the Cliff Walk, lighting his cigar with a lighter that resembled a blowtorch and had a flame strong enough to resist the winds.

All along the side of the cliffs there were lawns that seemed impossibly green for autumn, and trees that were exploding into spectacular arrays of colors. This was the time of year he liked best. Screw the summers when there were too many tourists. He didn’t need extra people in town any more than he needed increased prices at the gas pump. Then there were the winters to consider, when scraping ice off his car and shoveling snow off his sidewalks seemed to take most of his free time.

“You must think you make a pretty picture there, Richie.” The smart-ass was his partner, Danforth Edward Holdstedter the Third; better known to Boyd as either Danny or dickhead, depending on his state of mind. Right now he was Danny, but he was pushing it. Danny looked just as preppy as his name implied, with perfect blond hair, blue eyes, and a dimple on his chin. He was also so damned cheerful it hurt to be around him for too long. Unfortunately, he was very good at finding missing people.

“I think I’m gonna put this cigar out in your eye if you don’t shut your face and let me think.” Most people would have thought the threat was serious. Danny knew better. Boyd was happiest when he was threatening physical injury. Besides, Danny had him by a good sixty pounds.

“So why are we out here, exactly?” Danny moved closer and leaned over the side of the railing, staring down at the waves where they were lapping against the rocks. Danny did that every time, convinced that at least half of the people who disappeared in the area were actually so much jelly after falling into the waters of the bay. It would certainly explain the recent track record.

“Well, Danny, my boy. We have eight cases in this area that have something in common; can you guess what that is?”

“They all fell off the side here and became jelly?” The kid always sounded so hopeful when he said that.

“No, not quite.” He thought about it for a second and shrugged. “Well, maybe, but we don’t know it for sure.”

“Then tell me.”

“They all live in this area.”

Danny stopped kidding around when he heard that little tidbit. There was nothing remotely funny about the idea that eight people from the Cliff Walk had mysteriously vanished.

Sure as hell, it would be a bad thing if someone else made the same conclusions.

Maggie went to school just like she was supposed to, but she felt sick. Her stomach churned and her heartbeat seemed to triple throughout the day. The nausea started strong and faded after a while. By the time school was finished she was feeling better and gave it no more thought.

She saw Ben in class and smiled for him. He smiled back, but neither of them spoke. They almost never did in school. It was just when they ran across each other on the street that they were friends. Here they may as well have been complete strangers. Still, she hoped he’d show up at the diner again. It was fun having someone to talk to and not having to worry about him trying to get into her pants.

Maggie found herself wondering for a few moments if Ben was homosexual and then dismissed the notion. He still looked, and he was still shy around her. It seemed that somehow she had run across a man who was actually a gentleman, and chivalrous to boot. She made a mental note to keep a fair distance from him, unless he ran across her first. It would have been too easy to let him into her world and that would be disastrous.

She didn’t want or need a man in her life. She didn’t want or need a relationship. Emotions were not a part of her plan, and she fully intended to keep any affection in check until after she graduated.

Just a shame he was cute. It would have been easier to ignore him if he at least had a big mole on his forehead or something.

After school she cased the synagogue until she saw Rabbi Lefkowitcz. He was a good-looking man in his forties; while he was harder to seduce than she’d expected, he eventually fell for her charms. They went to his office and she kept him occupied until the sun was almost down. He managed to look grateful for the experience and miserable for cheating on his wife at the same time. He even called her by the woman’s name: Elizabeth. Her picture was on his desk: she looked nothing at all like Maggie. She didn’t correct him.

Afterward, she went to the movies. John Cusack had a new comedy playing and she absolutely loved him. He was funny and sweet and managed to look sexy as hell when he was confused or pouty; kind of like Ben, despite the fact that they looked nothing alike.

She left the movie understanding the rabbi’s mentality a little better.

The plan was to be home by ten; she was on schedule and thinking about calling for a pizza. She hadn’t counted on Tom being there and waiting on her again.

But there he was, in all of his hip-hop glory. He was trying to look like a college kid again and failing. His long, oversized shorts and muscle shirt just looked stupid when she considered how cold it was getting, and no one, she didn’t care who they were or how hot they might look, ever looked good in a baseball cap turned sideways. It worked when a kid was six, not when a man was almost thirty.

“Where have you been?” His voice was harsh and demanding of answers.

“The movies,” she explained as she shook her head. One look in his eyes and she could tell he’d been sampling his own drugs again. He was normally smart enough not to, but this seemed to be one of his stupid days.

“Yeah? So why were you at a synagogue for three hours? When did you become a kike?” That was the thing about Monkey Boy: she could always count on him to be an insensitive prick, but now and then he was a smart insensitive prick.

Fortunately, she was smarter and had already come up with a proper answer in case he saw her handling her tasks for Soulis. “Hello? Student, here. I’m studying comparative religions in my sociology class.”

He rocked back on his heels for a moment, nodding too fast; a sure sign he was hopped on speed. “Really? Why don’t we ask Ben about that? I bet Ben’s just the kind of guy who will tell me the truth about what you were doing all day.”

Without any warning, Tom stepped over and pounded his fist into Ben’s front door hard enough to rattle the window off to the side.

Maggie saw movement through the darkened window and a moment later a very tired-looking Ben was opening the door, his face set in a polite expression of curiosity.

“Hi, Ben!” Tom’s voice boomed between the two apartments.

Ben winced. “Hi, Tom.” He looked over her way and nodded his head once. “Hi, Maggie. What’s up?”

“You in the same classes as Maggie, Ben?”

“A couple of them, why?”

“Oh, we were just having a discussion and I was teasing her because I saw her go into a synagogue today. I asked her when she switched from Catholicism to Judaism, and she said she was studying for a religion class.”

Ben nodded his head, never taking his eyes off Pardue. “Comparative religions, a big part of our sociology class. In fact, I have to take about half of the churches around here and she has the other half. We’re sort of lab partners.” He never even blinked while he was spewing a line of shit right in Tom’s ugly face.

“Really? Why did she get the Jews?”

“Because I have to take the Muslims. It’s easier for me, because everyone knows the Muslim faith isn’t exactly girl-friendly.”

“Who’s doing the Catholics?”

“Me. We’re supposed to look at the faiths from an outsider’s perspective and I’m a Methodist.” Ben never once took his eyes off Tom as he spoke.

“Cool. Thanks, Ben.”

“No problem. Anything else, guys?”

Maggie flashed him a quick smile and shook her head. Tom spoke before she could. “Yeah, Ben. Is that why you two keep meeting at the Silver Dollar Diner?”

Ben looked at Pardue carefully and shook his head. “No. That’s just been because neither of us ever sleeps and they make good omelets there.”

“That’s cool.” Tom smiled and moved closer to Maggie, putting his apish arm around her shoulders and hugging her to his side. “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t making moves on my girl, Ben.” He was smiling as he spoke, but it wasn’t a smile that had anything to say about humor.

Ben shrugged and kept staring at Pardue. “Always best to know when you’re out of your league, Tom.”

Monkey Boy laughed and Maggie expelled a soft breath of relief.

Ben nodded and went back into his apartment.

When he was gone, Tom looked back over at her and nodded too, satisfied with the explanation. “Just making sure we still understand each other, Maggie.”

“Never do that again.” She slipped away from his thuggish arm around her shoulder and added a few layers of permafrost to her voice.

“Do what?” He put on his best look of wide-eyed innocence. It wasn’t a pretty thing to see.

“Never check up on me again and never bother one of my friends again with this sort of shit, or we’re done doing business together.”

“You’re wrong about that, Maggie.” He was still smiling, and he was still sounding just as amiable as ever, but Maggie knew the danger signs well enough.

She just didn’t care much right then. “Excuse me?”

“You’re wrong.” He shrugged his shoulders and leaned in close enough that she could see something green, like spinach, wedged between two of his teeth. “I own you. I was just testing the waters today, baby. I find out you’ve been doing business on the side or giving away pussy for free, and I’ll make sure you know it, too.”

Shit, he was getting all possessive again and she hated when he started that.

“Go get sober, Tom. Before you say something you’ll regret later.”

“Maybe you should come home and get me sober.”

“I have a paper to work on.”

“Shit’s only gonna hold water for a few more months, Maggie. Then maybe I’ll have to see about you moving in with me.”

“That’s not gonna happen and you know it.”

“We’ll see.”

Tom went on his way and Maggie watched him go, suddenly cold inside and goose-fleshed. Tom wanted her to move in? She hoped that was just the coke talking, because that wasn’t going to happen. She’d find a way to work her own deals before that would ever happen.

Thinking about the money she’d gotten from Jason helped. It wasn’t exactly retirement money, but it put her a lot closer to her goals than she’d expected to be.

Ben’s front door opened. He looked at her with a tentative smile.

“You okay, Maggie?”

“Yeah, Ben. Thanks. You saved my ass.”

“Anytime.” He stepped back into his apartment and waved. “Have a good night, Maggie.”

“You too, Ben.” She smiled for him and resisted the urge to ask him out to the diner. She could have used a friend just then. But as Monkey Boy had just reminded her, friends were a luxury she could hardly afford.

Brian sat in his patrol car and waited. He’d been waiting for a long while now, hoping to hear back from the bastard that had ruined his life.

He wanted to have a long, long talk with the motherfucker.

His accounts were still screwed up. He still had no money, no credit history, and a very serious problem if he wanted to keep his house and everything else in his life.

Angie was making his life a living hell. She’d called him seven times during the day, wanting to know why the bank was still calling, wanting to know who he’d really talked to on the phone, wanting to know a dozen different things that he couldn’t answer if he didn’t want a divorce. And he did not want to lose her. Just because he needed a little action on the side didn’t mean he wanted to lose his wife.