Karen Rose - Scream For Me

He smiled. “We like to have parties. Sometimes they get a little wild.”

“Oh, Mr. Myers.” She giggled, an unattractive sound coming from a woman her age. “Privacy is such an underrated consideration in the purchase of a new home.” She paused at a mirror that hung in the foyer and again patted her helmet-head of hair. “Why, this place is so private, you could have an open air rock ’n’ roll show in the backyard and no neighbors would complain about the noise.”

He stepped behind her and smiled into the mirror. “Exactly my thoughts.”

Her eyes widened in alarm and her mouth opened to scream, but too late. Quick as a wish, he had his knife to her throat. “In case you haven’t guessed already, my name is not Myers.” He leaned in and whispered his name in her ear and watched her wide eyes glaze over with horror as recognition seeped past all that hairspray. “Let me introduce you to a new concept, Miz Anderson. Accrued interest on an unpaid debt.”

He pushed her to the floor and quickly bound her hands behind her back. “I sure hope you like to scream.”

Dutton, Thursday, February 1, 7:30 p.m.

“So did Simon have a key?” Ed asked from the back of the surveillance van.

Daniel slipped his phone into his pocket. “Yeah. Vito Ciccotelli said there were five keys found in Simon’s things. He’s sending them all first thing tomorrow. Now if we can only figure out what they open.” A movement on Ed’s screen had him straightening. “Looks like Mary is ready.”

“Mary had me set up the camera in Alex’s old bedroom,” Ed said. “Since we found her ring there, we thought it made sense.”

His hands clenched, Daniel watched as the door opened and Mary led Alex in.

“What time is it?” Mary asked her.

“Late. It’s dark and there’s lightning. Thunder and lightning.”

“Where are you?”

“In bed.”

“Sleeping?”

“No. I’m sick. I have to get up to go to the bathroom. I’m sick.”

“So what happened?”

Alex was standing at the window. “Someone’s there.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s Alicia. She sneaks out sometimes. Goes to parties.”

“Is it Alicia?”

Alex leaned toward the window. “No. It’s a man.” She flinched. “It’s Craig.”

“Why did you flinch, Alex?”

“The lightning is bright.” She grimaced. “My stomach hurts.”

“Is Craig still out there?”

“Yes. But now there’s someone else. Two people, carrying a bag between them.”

“Is it heavy or light?”

“Heavy, I think.” She flinched again, then sucked in a breath. Then stared blankly.

“What is it? More lightning?”

Alex nodded. Hesitated. “He dropped it.”

“He dropped the bag?”

“It’s not a bag, it’s a blanket. It fell open.”

“And what do you see in the lightning, Alex?”

“Her arm. Her hand. It just fell out onto the ground.” She was worrying the ring finger on her right hand, tugging as if a ring were there. “I can see her hand.” She relaxed slightly. “Oh, she’s just a doll.”

Daniel felt a chill slide down his back and remembered Sheila sprawled like a Raggedy Ann doll in the corner of Presto’s Pizza.

“She’s a doll?” Mary asked.

Alex nodded, her eyes blank, her voice eerily matter-of-fact. “Yes. She’s just a doll.”

“What do the men do?”

“He grabs her arm, puts it back in the blanket. Now he’s got it again and they’re running around the house.”

“What’s happening now?”

She frowned slightly. “My stomach still hurts. I’m going back to sleep.”

“All right. Come with me, Alex.” Mary led her to a folding chair and began to bring her out of it. Daniel could tell the moment she was cognizant of her surroundings. She blanched and hunched her shoulders.

“It wasn’t a doll,” she said tonelessly. “It was Alicia. They were carrying her in the blanket.”

Mary crouched in front of her. “Who, Alex?”

“Craig and Wade. Wade was the one who dropped his end. It was her arm. It… it didn’t look real. It looked like a doll.” She closed her eyes. “I told my mother.”

Mary glanced into the camera, then back at Alex. “When?”

“When she was in bed crying. She kept saying ‘a sheep and a ring.’ I thought I’d had a dream. A premonition, maybe. I told her about the doll and she got upset. I told her it was ‘just a doll, Mama.’ I didn’t know she’d seen the blanket, too.” Tears began to seep from Alex’s closed eyes. “I told her and she told Craig and he killed her.”

“Oh, God,” Daniel whispered.

“She’s felt guilty all this time,” Ed said softly. “Poor Alex.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Alex,” Mary said.

Alex was rocking, a barely discernible movement. “I told her and she told him and he killed her. She died because of me.”

Daniel was out of the van before she finished the sentence. He ran to the bedroom and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly, almost bonelessly. Like a doll.

“I’m sorry, honey. I’m so sorry.”

She was still rocking, a terrifying little keening sound coming from her throat. He looked up at Mary. “I need to get her out of here.”

Mary nodded sadly. “Be careful on the stairs.”

Daniel urged Alex to her feet and again she came willingly. He put his hands on her shoulders and gave her the smallest of shakes. “Alex. Stop it .” At the crack of his voice, her rocking stilled. “Now, let’s go.”

Atlanta, Thursday, February 1, 10:00 p.m.

“Your aim was better tonight,” Daniel commented as he pulled into his driveway.

“Thank you.” She was still subdued, still numb. Only when he had taken her to Leo Papadopoulos’s target range had she regained some measure of control. The paper target had suffered as it became everyone she’d come to hate over the last few days. Craig most of all, but also Wade and Mayor Davis and Deputy Mansfield and whoever had stirred all this up to begin with by viciously murdering four innocent women.

And even her mother and Alicia. If Alicia hadn’t snuck out that night… And if her mother hadn’t lost control…

And, and, and…

She had aimed better. She’d held that gun steady and she’d fired until the magazine was empty. Then she’d reloaded and done it again and again until her arms were sore.

“I’ll get your shopping bag out of the trunk,” he said when the silence had become too great. “You can hang your new clothes in my closet if you want.”

She hadn’t bought that much today, just a few blouses and a few pairs of slacks. Still, hanging them in his closet felt too intimate… too much when she was so raw inside. But he looked expectant, so she nodded. “All right.”

He popped the trunk and she expected he’d shut it quickly, but he didn’t. The trunk stayed up as thirty seconds became a minute. She got out and sighed. Frank Loomis stood in the shadow of the trunk lid and he and Daniel were engaged in fierce whispers.

“Daniel,” she said, and he whipped around to look at her.

“Go up to the house,” he ordered. “Please.”

Too numb and weary to argue, she did as he asked and from his front porch watched the two men argue. Finally Daniel slammed the trunk closed loudly enough to wake the entire neighborhood and Frank Loomis stalked back to where he’d parked his car and drove away.

His shoulders heaving with the furious breaths he drew, Daniel turned and came up the sidewalk, a dark cast to his face. With jerky movements he opened the door and shut off the alarm. Alex watched him, remembering how they’d come together against that door the night before.