Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 04 - Trash Out (42 page)

“Do you know how connected these people are?  I saw two angel investors as I walked in. Your family still has it.  And they don’t even recognize me
,
”
h
e added bitterly.

“I recognized you. What are you doing here?
To mock me?
You used me to get at my family for business,
and here you are doing it again
.  Jesus I can’t believe you.  Thank G
od
, I
saved my sisters, no one, no one should go through what I went through.”

“But you survived. You got help
,
”
h
e protested meekly.

I admit I wasn’t quite following the conversation
, but
I didn’t dare step closer
.
I was a beacon in the night in
my
red ensemble.  I cautiously hugged the rough
barrel
and hid behind the second row to get a closer look
but
not so close to
draw
Mark’s attention. It would be just like him to think I really would save him.    

“Your brother married, it’s done.  How does that make you feel?” 
His voice was rough, mean.  I’d recommend not riling the woman up, but that’s just from my own small store of information on the matter.

I carefully peeked around the rounded surface of the
barrels
careful not to catch my hair on the rough stave.

Mark had edged around the dining table and Kimberly had followed.  The table was now between
Mark and Kimberly
stood on one side of the table, I was hiding behind my protective stack of barrels on the opposite side. Kim’s
back was to me,
her plait had
come undone and the braid was unraveling.
Something flashed in her hand as
a
narrow
shaft of
light crept into the dim cellar.
She
gripped
a substantial carving
knife
in the shape of a large triangle
.
The head chef
of the catering company
was known for his knives
. This was fine steel, perfectly sharp, well balanced. 
She
pointed
the tip
directly
at Mark who
had finally abandoned his
elevator speech.

“I thought I took care of you
,
”
h
er voice
dropped an octave
, which to me, sounded more menacing
, certainly more dangerous
.

“Everyone did.”  He gingerly touched his face.

Her whole body
stiffened.  And it looked like she fully
intended
to carve out his heart this time, no repairs.  I looked at the
knife in Kimberly’s poised hand. She lunged, foot forward, weight into the lunge as if she practiced this.  Which was not, as we all can agree, a good thing.

My back was to the
door;
I was so engrossed in the drama before me that I didn’t hear Patrick and Carrie until they were almost on top of me. 

Carrie careened into the cellar, hooked around the barrels and almost smashed into the hard table. Her dress followed a second behind her in
a swoosh
of tulle.

She caught her breath.  “So it’s true.”

Patrick followed close behind and almost knocked Carrie into the table a second time.  I stepped out from my hiding place, and
tried to keep either one from getting any closer to Kimberly.  This
was just between Mark and Kimberly. But I wasn’t entirely sure.

“She’s got a knife
!
” Mark cried.  “Do something, Allison, tell her that you survived, you’re getting married, it all worked out for you
!
”

“Wow,” Carrie said.  “He
is
really that stupid.”

“Yes,” I said.  “Apparently he is
.
”
I didn’t know really who to root for, the
misogynist
or the mad woman. I was feeling a strong sisterhood with Kimberly, but I knew it wasn’t an appropriate sentiment to share at this time.

“Yes,” I admitted
, just because it was true
.  “I got over it.”

Kimberly did not even turn around or
acknowledge
what I said. She was smart
.
S
he was not allowing any of us to distract her from her purpose. She’d make a great realtor. Except for the flying off the handle part.
And
the sharp objects
.
 
And the stalking.

“Stay back, all of you, just stay back
,
”
Kimberly cried.  “I’ll kill him again if you come any closer.”

“Not again
,
” Patrick
said softly.  “Kimee, not again.  Let it go, it’s okay.  Look
, Carrie
is on your side, she’s on our side.  Come and meet my wife Kimee.
She
showed up on time, she
said yes, she said I do. It turned out for me, it can turn out for you too.
”

“Don’t try to distract me Patrick
,
” Kimberly
growled. 

“Yes Patrick, don’t make any sudden moves
,
”
Mark echoed.  It was another bad thing to say, but in his defense, what is the correct response?

Kimberly lunged again, she nicked him, blood oozed through his white shirt.

“Kim, Kim.” Patrick stayed focused and chanted softly.  “Give me the knife, come on baby,
give
little brother the knife. You know you want to, come on.”  He began advancing very slowly around Carrie and towards his sister.

Kimberly
shook her head, ignored her approaching brother and focused on her quarry. She
took two more steps
forward
effectively trapping Mark in the corner where the two stacks of
barrels
met.  Mark couldn’t get around her
and there was no egress behind
.  It was like a Greek play,
the
kind that
does not end well.

“Kim, Kim.”  Patrick continued approaching slowly.

“For God’s sake get the knife!” Mark the brave, called from behind his attacker.

“You!”  Kimberly
shrieked
again. “You can’t get away this time.”  She lunged at him again. Did she learn how to street fight in the
asylum
?  Did they teach each other new skills?  It was a cynical thought, but one I couldn’t help.   She was fast and in good shape, better than the rest of us,
quicker than the rest of us and with far less to lose
.

He couldn’t step back any further, he was flat up against the barrels,
nowhere
to go, no where to turn. Blood spread down his right arm.

“You bastard.  You left me. You left her. How many women?”

I wondered that myself, but
unlike Mark, I knew not to chime in with inappropriate questions. 

Patrick closed the gap between he and Kimberly.  But
his efforts were ineffective. She
suddenly turned on him, the knife raised. Mark tried to scramble to
safety
but he
had
nowhere
to move.  I automatically glanced up at the top
barrels
now
violently
shaking with Mark’s scrambling. Carrie
shrieked just
as Kimberly made a downward stroke with the knife.

Patrick yelled and lunged for his sister who howled like a banshee and turned to attack her brother with the bloody knife.  Carrie would have none of that, she jumped on the table
,
took two long strides
and
launched a
t
both Kimberly
and Mark.  She knocked Patrick out of the way
and
grabbed
the knife. She
slashed at Kimberly who howled in protest, I
couldn’t
see in the shadows if Carrie had the knife or if the knife had Carrie.  Patrick
yelled
and plunged back into the fray.
Mark yelled help
just as the back door smashed open
blasting all the strugglers with light. Kimberly
scrambled
towards Mark. 

Carrie
snatched
up the knife, looked at it as if it were alive and with a shudder threw it across the room. I
t clanged on the cement floor.
She dipped back down
out of my sight line
to
either
administer to Mark or smack him for being an idiot.  Patrick
finally reached his sister and
gripped
her
wrist
.  I could hear his labored breathing from where I stood.
It took more seconds
than
I liked
to sort out the players.  Carrie slowly gained her footing
and stood
, looking
every inch
her Stephen King
namesake
.

“You have the number.  Call
,”
s
he instructed me.

I nodded and fished my phone from my impossibly small beaded bag.  I did have the number.  We’d need an ambulance too.

Kathleen and Claire tumbled into the scene and gasped when they saw
Carrie
.

“Not again
,”
t
hey groaned
in unison
.  “Patrick?” 

“I’m fine. She may have killed him this time though.” Patrick confirmed.
He peeled off
his
custom tuxedo
jacket
, a slash of red
marked
one sleeve
,
but he didn’t notice.  He
wadded the jacket and
ben
t down t
rying to
stem the blood spurting from Mark’s leg.  Kathleen and her sister gently
but firmly,
took
Kimberly’s
arm
.
She
moved with them willingly as if all
the fight had drained from her.

“Call security
,
”  Patrick
instructed his sisters.

It would take a
precious minutes
for the ambulance to get to the winery.  I carefully worked around the dining table to where Mark was bleeding,
Carrie and
Patrick valiantly
tried to stem the blood flow with Patrick’s expensive jacket
but their efforts were
ineffectual. B
lood gushed with each
heart beat
. I’m not an expert, but …

“Why
?  Why did you leave Allison and
Kimberly?  Why were you such a bastard?” 
Carrie
challenged her patient.

“I love women
. And women want
weddings.  So that’s what I do.  I just could never go through to the end.”

“Not a great excuse
,
” I said harshly.

“It’s the only
one
I have
,
” he
tried to lif
t
his head, but it seemed too heavy, he dropped it back into Carrie’s lap.  She grimaced, but didn’t pull away
.

We heard the cries and
could hear guests
shuffle
towards the warehouse
.
I heard
a man
bellow, what’s going on here? But there was no helpful answer.
Ben’s voice calmed everyone down and instructed
them
to return to the reception.
I supposed someone should
make
an announcement to the guests, but we were distracted.  I heard a cry and a clanging, but didn’t
investigate
, the
all-powerful
Furies were on the job,
I
knew they didn’t want my help.

The EM
Ts roared up to the crush pad.  Ben unrolled the doors and flipped on the bank of lights from that side of the large room.  Red and blue lights from the ambulance
scatter
ed
more red color over the warehouse.