really like. Totally cool. I have it at home. Got it from a guy. I watch it on my computer. It’s about this guy he’s in this club, see? He starts talking to this super hot girl. When she’s not looking, he puts this pill in her drink. This hot- looking girl’s drink at the bar. They don’t tell you what the pill is, but I got it right away. You get it? Isn’t that cool? And they tease you about whether she’s really going to drink it. You know, she puts it to her lips and something interrupts her and she sets it back down. They do that a couple times. Every time I watch I’m yelling, drink it baby, drink it! Eventually, she does drink it. Then he takes her home. She’s out of it so he can do anything he wants.”
“Like the woman on the beach.”
“Exactly. But that’s all they showed. Instead of really showing something, they fade out. The rest of the movie totally sucked. I never play the rest of it. Like it was some big deal in the girl’s life and she’s like in shock or something for the rest of her life. Always has to take some kind of medicine. That’s what the movie was supposedly all about. I didn’t get all that. Sure, I suppose it wasn’t cool for her, but messed up for the rest of her life...gimme a break. I guess they have to put in that shit. Sometimes I dream about getting some of those pills. I’d pay a million dollars for just one of them. Once I got that pill in my hand, I’d start looking for the hottest girl in the world. Magic fucking pills, huh?”
Talking about the movie had excited him. She had watched his expression change. Now he seemed unconcerned with how she felt sitting there or how she responded. He no longer saw her as a person, just a bundle of female goodies sitting before him. Like he said, the bad guys in the movies always have a mad gleam in their eyes. Toby now had that look. The look that said, smart guys don’t pass up something handed to them. Now frowning. Now breathing heavily. His eyes all over her, looking straight through her clothes. What was his next move? She stammered, “Tell me about another good movie, Toby.”
One of his hands was now at his crotch adjusting himself. Her legs were still under his chair. Maybe there’s enough room for her to bring her legs up together and smash him in the groin. What would that do? Stopping him for a few minutes wouldn’t be enough. Just make him angry. It’d have to be viciously hard to disable him long enough for her to get away.
Then he scooted his chair closer. No way could she get her legs out now. His eyes narrowed. One hand went back to squeezing the bulge in his crotch. With the other hand, he reached out and fumbled around her breasts. She had expected that eventually, but it still surprised her and she flinched. He was no longer thinking with his brain. He was excited and now had enough nerve. This was it. She was there for the taking.
Is this what it’s like when you know you’re going to die? She imagined them calling Triney to investigate. He’d stand there with his notebook looking down at her wasted body outlined in chalk, and in a loud voice he’d vow to all the police personnel now busy at the scene of her death that he was going to get the bastard that did it.
No! It’s not going to be like that. She knew she was smarter than this. At that moment, a wild thought flashed across her mind. In a sudden burst she screamed at Toby, “You little moron, you dumb fucking moron! You’re just as goddamn stupid as your moron father!”
He jerked back instantly. He cringed down in the chair. Started trembling. Closed his eyes tightly. He raised his arms to protect his head.
After a minute, he lowered his arms slowly. Still shaking. His face red. His forehead moist with sweat. “Get up,” he ordered.
“What are we doing?”
“We’re leaving.”
She didn’t like this. She wasn’t going to get into his vehicle. He’d have to strangle her right here. “Where?”
He kicked the chair away and pulled her to her feet.
“For chrissake, Toby, untie me. We’ll walk out of here and I’ll forget the whole thing. You can go home and watch that movie again.”
He was silent.
“You’re not taking me to the beach, Toby. Get that out of your head. I won’t go!”
He pushed her ahead of him walking through the dark kitchen and out on to the back porch. She stopped abruptly at the edge of the porch steps.
He came up beside her. “Go on, don’t stop.”
She yelled, “My feet!”
When he looked down, she threw her entire weight against him and he stumbled backward off the porch. She jumped off the steps. She started running down the driveway her arms still tied behind her. If she could at least get to the street, she could start screaming. She heard his footsteps on the gravel behind her. He was repeating her name. He caught her. She felt the yank as he grabbed the back of her shirt. He jerked her backwards down hard to the gravel. She screamed. She kicked at him and squirmed around trying to maneuver her tied hands under her feet to get them in front of her.
“Sandy, I can...,” he sounded strangely calm.
That’s when she saw the flash of light and heard the loud pop. Too loud and much too close. Her ears rang. Something warm and sticky sprayed across her face. He staggered and leaned against the side of his vehicle. She stared as his face morphed into a weird contorted mask. His heavy limp body fell forward across her legs. His blood blossomed out wet across his shirt and dripped down on her legs.
Chapter Sixteen
Sandy didn’t move, at least not at first. Was another shot coming? She stayed curled up in the driveway, her shoulder against the SUV’s rear tire. Blood dripped from Toby’s lifeless body down across her legs and formed rivulets on the gravel. She was relieved when she began to hear voices, then some yelling, then in the distance the wonderful wail of a siren.
She moved enough to look down at Toby. Harmless now. A confused and dangerous young man who now would never master his demons. She had survived. She was alive. She stopped shivering and let out a deep breath. She put her head down on the gravel and began to cry.
A hand touched her shoulder. She jumped. The feeling of sudden terror surged through her. She screamed out, “Someone help me!”
The man crouched beside her. “Sandy...it’s Kevin.”
She stared at him, blinked her eyes. “What did you do?”
“I just pulled up. Are you hurt? Looks like you’re legs are bleeding. Who’s that guy? He’s really bleeding.” Kevin untied her hands and then moved over to the body and placed two fingers behind Toby’s earlobe. “He’s dead. You’re not bleeding. I think that’s his blood on you. He’s been shot. Did you shoot him, Sandy?”
“Kevin, what are you doing here?”
Flickers of blue and red lights grew stronger until broad sweeps of revolving lights splashed across the scene. A crowd of the curious collected in the street. They gathered in excited clusters trading their guesses about what had happened.
“Are you okay? Can you move both arms and legs?”
She nodded.
All the uproar, sirens, and flashing lights were a repeat of the scene a few days earlier when Abby shot Bruce Banks at that exact same house. Once again, the police radios were squawking things indecipherable. Again, deputies were again encircling the area with yellow barrier tape.
A paramedic arrived and pronounced Toby dead, then moved over to Sandy and started wiping the blood splatter from her face. Kevin stayed beside her.
“My God, Sandy, what happened here? Is that the Toby guy? Did you go inside? Did you find anything about Jamie?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Abby showed up at the hotel for dinner, but was suspicious. Very defensive, just waiting for me to set her off. When I mentioned Jamie, she yelled something about sick of hearing about kidnapping and stormed off. I called you immediately, left a message on your phone. Afraid she was heading right back here, I tried to get here first to warn you.”
