Vengeance (2 page)

With this in
mind, she’d come prepared with disinfectants and her own bedding.
After the depressing place was cleaned to her satisfaction, she
tried to assure Molly, who was hiding under the bed, that
everything was going to be all right.
If only I believed
that,
she thought grimly.

Afterwards,
she went over to the welfare office and applied for assistance. If
this nightmare had been delayed for another couple of years, she
would have qualified for the old age pension. Still, she was damned
if she was going to let that evil trio destroy her. Life went
on...at least for a while, and she was determined to get even and
win.

Her first step
was to stake out Matthew’s new and expensive home. She parked at a
discreet distance on the tree-lined street and noted his time
schedule and routine. He usually hosted a party on Saturday night,
a fairly raucous affair with about half-a-dozen guests. She
suspected they did more than just drink. Matthew had grown quite
fond of the occasional snort of cocaine, while Fang had a fondness
for the opium pipe. As a result, they both slept late on Sunday
morning, often not making an appearance until early afternoon.

After several
weeks of this covert surveillance, she was able to determine the
best time to put step two into action. It would definitely be on a
Saturday night when the targets were pissed and sleeping it off.
They’d be at their most vulnerable then, and the plan was most
likely to succeed.

Judy drove
back to the Palace through a miserable mixture of fog and freezing
rain. As always, Molly greeted her at the door. After her welfare
cheque had arrived she’d moved to a housekeeping unit and paid by
the week. She told them she’d clean the room herself. This gave her
more privacy. No more knocks on the door at 7:00 am. Well, in her
position, you had to be grateful for small mercies. Every day she
survived -- and she took it one day at a time -- was mud in the eye
to the villains who had plotted her demise. Now it was
her
turn to plot theirs. Basically, they’d been signing their own death
warrants when they’d robbed her of her house, and left her nothing
to lose.

The book she
was reading at present was a history of Canada. The British, who
were the victors, had given the defeated French a gift of land. It
was a smart move. By so doing, they had ensured the French would
not join with the Americans and fight against them. The British had
known that a man with nothing to lose is the most dangerous of all.
Matthew, Fang and Juanita were obviously ignorant of that fact.

* * * * *

The Saturday
evening party at Matthew’s multi-million dollar home was breaking
up for the night. Decidedly tipsy guests weaved their way
unsteadily into their Lincolns and other expensive vehicles.

Judy watched
the action, as usual, from a discreet distance, as she poured
another cup of coffee from her thermos. It was damned chilly
sitting in a vehicle for hours, unable to turn on the engine to get
some heat. She didn’t dare draw attention to herself like that.

But with any
luck this would be the last night of it. After all the lights were
switched off in the house, she waited for a couple of hours just to
make sure Matthew and Fang were snoring drunkenly, before putting
her plan into action.

It was quite
simple really. She grabbed the can of gasoline. She would splash it
all around the house and then strike a match. Hopefully, the two
evil-doers would perish in the ensuing inferno.

Judy realised
that she would be a suspect in the arson. Perhaps not the
prime
suspect though. She suspected that Matthew, Fang and
Juanita were reeling in the bucks from illegal activities -- most
likely drugs from Columbia -- so any of their criminal cohorts
could be responsible. Still, she would have preferred if it could
have been made to look like an accident.

As she crept
towards the house under a dark and brooding sky -- thank goodness
it wasn’t a full moon -- she suddenly noticed the front door had
been left slightly ajar. This didn’t surprise her too much, given
all the drunken partygoers. And the host had always been decidedly
lax about security. Perhaps he had passed out before his inebriated
visitors left?

She pushed the
door open further with a gloved hand. All was quiet. The lights on
the south side of the house were always the last to go out. Judy
assumed that was the master bedroom. She took a few cautious steps
down the hallway. The living room was in a state of disarray with
overflowing ashtrays and dirty glasses. Half empty bottles of
liquor were cluttered haphazardly on a coffee table. It had
obviously been quite a night.

Scarcely
daring to breathe, and afraid the evil occupants might be wakened
by the wild hammering of her heart, Judy crept quietly out again
and darted around the corner to the Seven Eleven store. A plan was
hatching in her mind that was at once so simple yet perfect, she
found it hard to believe her luck.

For the first
time in forty years -- that’s when she’d quit smoking -- Judy
bought a packet of cigarettes. Underneath a streetlight, she paused
to light one, screwing up her face at the acrid smell. Then she
walked swiftly back to Matthew’s house and stuck the burning
cigarette between the couch cushions. That should do the trick. And
the beautiful part about it was that nobody would suspect a
thing.

Before she
crept back into the brooding night, curiosity suddenly got the
better of her. The master bedroom beckoned. By the dim light left
burning in the hallway, she could make out the king sized bed where
two figures sprawled drunkenly with open mouths. Matthew still had
his clothes on while Fang was naked. Her sinewy brown body appeared
feral, repulsively so.

Judy was about
to leave when something on the elaborate Spanish style dresser
caught her eye. It was an envelope overflowing with bank notes.
Once again, this didn’t surprise her. As well as being lax about
security, Matthew had also been careless with money. He’d always
had so much of it.

Without giving
it another thought, Judy grabbed the money; she was entitled to it
anyway, and left. As she passed by the living room, she could smell
the burning upholstery.

Then it hit
her. What if the evil bastards had a smoke alarm? It wasn’t likely
given Matthew’s cavalier attitude about safety, but still... To
have an alarm suddenly go off and alert them would be
intolerable.

Judy searched
around the ceilings. There was no alarm in the living room or
master bedroom. But right at the very end of the hallway, she
spotted one.
Damn!

Heart
pounding, she stood up on a dining room chair and removed the
alarm.
Fait accompli!
But just as she started back down the
hallway to the front door, the unthinkable happened...

Judy stood
there frozen in fear as Matthew went into paroxysms of coughing.
He’d obviously been smoking too many substances, both legal and not
so. The front door and safety beckoned, but the master bedroom lay
in its path. She couldn’t risk him seeing her.

“You got bad
cough. You take medicine.”

Oh no, he’d
woken Fang.
Judy winced at the pigeon English.

She could hear
the movements in the bed and then the thump of feet on the carpeted
floor. Judy darted into the kitchen and held her breath. There had
to be a back door. But dare she risk opening it? What if it were
alarmed? Although there again, with Matthew’s lax attitude towards
security that was doubtful.

Judy remained
frozen to the spot, as a toilet flushed in the master bedroom’s
ensuite bathroom. Then footsteps moved in the direction of the bed,
and eventually everything quietened down.

She felt like
a wild creature caught in some hellish trap. But she forced herself
to remain where she was for a while longer, before making a
cautious dash for the front door. Acrid smoke wafted out from the
living room.

As Judy hared
down the path towards the safety of her car, she inhaled great
lungfuls of fresh air. With any luck those evil, greedy, selfish
monsters would be dead by morning. She smiled. And foul play would
never be suspected.

So not only
would she get away with a double murder, although to her way of
thinking it was justifiable homicide, but she’d been rewarded with
a nice stash of cash to boot.

* * * * *

While rain
hammered against the windows of her shabby lodgings, and Molly
lapped at a saucer of milk, Judy remained glued to the television
news. But so far, there had been nothing about Matthew. Ditto for
the newspapers. She’d been out grabbing every edition for the past
24 hours. Was she being too impatient? She paced up and down the
tacky room. Then unable to stand the suspense any longer, decided
to risk taking a drive by Matthew’s house.

But as she
drove over there, the news she’d been waiting for came over the car
radio.

Judy pulled
over to the side of the road, and clasped her hands together in
glee. It had gone perfectly! It wasn’t until dawn that a neighbour
noticed the flames engulfing Matthew’s house. By the time the fire
department arrived it was too late. The occupants, whose names were
being withheld pending notification of next of kin, had
perished.

“Yay!” Judy
exclaimed triumphantly. She was finding it difficult to control her
exuberance. She’d buy an especially nice dinner for herself and
Molly. And heck, why not some champagne as well? If ever an
occasion called for bubbly, it was this one. Two down, and one to
go. Judy didn’t plan to rest on her laurels too long, before going
after her loathsome nemesis, Juanita Gomez. She would never know
what hit her.

When Judy got
back to the Palace, she partied until dawn. It had been a long time
since she’d had anything to celebrate, and she decided to make the
most of it. As she finished off the last of the champagne, she felt
decidedly tipsy. Pissed, actually. Molly purred contentedly on her
lap as a new day felt its way cautiously around the window
blinds.

There had been
a stack of hundred dollar bills in that envelope she’d taken from
Matthew’s bedroom, to the tune of around $25,000. Imagine keeping
as much money as that just lying around. Judy shook her head.
Still, his loss -- and he’d lost his miserable life as well thanks
to her -- was her gain.

She stroked
Molly’s warm fur and whispered endearments. Poor little Kitty she’d
been so upset about being uprooted from her comfortable home, and
ending up in a dump like this. So had she. Judy laughed. But it
wouldn’t be for long. As soon as she’d dealt with that nasty
varmint, Juanita, she’d get out of Dodge. She fancied a fresh start
someone far from here. Florida beckoned. It had a great climate,
why not?

* * * * *

Judy had been
watching Juanita for more than a month. She felt frustrated by the
delay, but when she made her move, she had to make sure it was the
right one. There were no second chances. Not ever. Not anywhere.
Anyone who believed otherwise was suffering from a bad case of
wishful thinking.

She’d had to
wait around the parking garage at the courthouse until she spotted
Juanita getting into her car. Then she’d followed her. It had been
tough going, not at all like in the movies. On that first occasion
she’d lost her. The second hadn’t been much better. But finally,
persistence had paid off, and she kept on her tail until she found
out her address.

Juanita’s
house was as affluent as Matthew’s. Whoever said crime didn’t pay
was mistaken. Judy smiled.

As the weeks
passed and she followed Juanita around, Judy got a sense of her
routine. She went to the office 5 days a week, and sometimes she’d
be in court. On weekends she headed for the gym. It was in the
latter locale that Judy planned to put her murderous plan into
action.

The
She’s
Fit
gym was located in a strip mall with underground parking.
All Judy had to do was wait until Juanita crossed the parking lot
on her way either to or from the gym, and going at high speed run
her down.

It did have a
degree of risk, of course. No matter how careful she was someone
might see her. But bearing this in mind she’d smeared mud over her
licence plates to conceal the numbers. And although she couldn’t
see any surveillance cameras, that didn’t mean there wasn’t a
concealed one somewhere. The other downside to this particular plan
was that the loathsome Juanita might not die. Still, if she got up
enough speed before mowing her down, she would hopefully be badly
injured, at least.

And so she
waited, until one blustery Saturday evening when the high winds and
pelting rain had left the roads quieter than usual. The wild
weather, however, had not kept Juanita from her usual trip to the
gym.

Judy, who had
been waiting impatiently for her arrival, decided to go for it. The
parking garage was practically empty. There would never be a better
time.

In these stark
surroundings with the cold lights and eerie echo, the crooked
Hispanic lawyer would finally meet with justice. Judy felt a
terrific surge of power and excitement as Juanita began her walk
towards the gym. As soon as she was dead in her tracks, Judy gunned
the engine and drove the Volvo directly at her. She would never
forget the look of terror and shock on Juanita’s dark face when she
went bouncing off the bonnet. Judy chuckled. “Payback time’s a
bitch,” she yelled triumphantly.

The impact of
the collision had sent Juanita hurling for about fifty feet, where
she lay crumpled up in a bloodied heap. But was she dead? Judy
would have loved to back over her to make sure. However, that would
make a ‘hit and run’ into a definite case of homicide. They’d be
able to tell by the tire tracks what had happened.