After Midnight

Not even when Judy tossed aside the knife and freed my hands from the electric cord.

Not even when she pulled me against her and hugged me tightly and stroked my hair.

Not even when she whispered, “Believe,” in my ear.

EPILOGUE

How do you like that?

Judy had meant it.

When I was finally able to settle down and stop crying, I found myself to be about the happiest I’d ever been in my whole life. Filthy, worn out and hurting all over, but…spectacular!

So that’s pretty much where the story ends.

I’ve got to stop it somewhere, right? This seems like a good place, since all the bad guys are dead, Judy and I are safe, and we’ve agreed to hit the road, together, for parts unknown.

There are still a few things that ought to be told, but I’ll try to be brief.

For starters, there at the camp when I finally finished crying, I took off my skirt and we both used it to wipe most the blood and assorted yuck off our bodies.

Then I searched the pockets of Steve’s shorts and gathered all the keys.

We buried Steve. Now, that was a chore!

When he was underground, we took down the tent and made the whole campsite go away.

We searched out the van, tossed the tent and some other odds and ends inside (including an astonishing and horrible collection of Polaroid photos that we’d found in the tent), started up the van with Steve’s keys, and drove back to Serena and Charlie’s house.

There, we took a quick shower in the master bathroom. (How wonderful to be really clean again!) Then we helped patch each other with an assortment of bandages, pads and tape. You should’ve seen us. We ended up looking like a couple of mummies.

We got dressed, borrowing shorts and tops and footwear from Serena.

By that time, it was about one o’clock in the morning. We still had quite a lot of night left. So we shuttled Elroy’s car (with him in it), back to Miller’s Woods and left it in the parking area near the picnic grounds.

Then we drove the van over to Judy’s apartment building. Scouting around, we found Tony’s car in the parking structure. The neighborhood seemed quiet. Maybe the body had been discovered and the place was staked out by cops. But we doubted it.

If I’d had Tony’s keys, I might’ve moved his car to a new location. But I’d long ago (the previous night), thrown them into the campfire. I could’ve dug them out while Judy and I were breaking camp, but it hadn’t occurred to me. Anyway, I suppose it’s just as well. Trying to move Tony’s car might’ve set off a whole new series of problems. You know how it is: everything is connected. Wires, wires, everywhere. So his car stayed put.

Up in Judy’s apartment, I helped her pack. We made several trips down to the van. Though we had to leave a lot of her stuff behind, we took everything that was truly important to her. Then we drove on back to Serena and Charlie’s house.

We parked the van in the garage.

Judy hurried upstairs with me, and helped me pack. We made a few trips down to the van. When I was satisfied that I had everything truly important—including the tapes from the answering machines, the five thousand dollars in cash from poor Murphy, and the autographed copy of his book—I locked up my room for the last time. Downstairs, I removed the license plates from my car and put them on the van. I also spent a couple of minutes in my car, signing it over to Serena.

Then, with me carrying the saber, we went to the main house. The sun was rising. We desperately needed to sleep, but we couldn’t risk it. Before too much longer, one of the bodies was sure to be discovered.

They were all over the town and woods, like bombs that might go off at any moment.

So we didn’t even try to sleep. Instead, we went to work cleaning up the mess that Elroy had left behind, thanks to Steve. In the guest bathroom, we scrubbed the walls and toilet and tub and floor. Then we worked on the carpet stains.

Which were pretty much hopeless.

I’d known they would be.

There was just no easy way around those stains. Lies would probably work with Serena and Charlie, but if the police should get involved…

Anyway, I would be gone. They could make whatever they wanted of the bloodstains.

By the time Judy and I finished our attempts to clean things up, it was about eight o’clock in the morning. Together, we made coffee and breakfast for ourselves, for each other. We had a delicious, leisurely meal.

While Judy cleaned up the breakfast mess, I wrote a note. It went like this:

Dear Serena and Charlie,Great news! An old friend dropped by—someone I hadn’t seen in years. We really hit it off. The upshot is, I’m going away with him. Whatever I’ve left behind, including my car, is yours. I’ve signed the pink slip for you. It’s in the glove compartment.I’m not sure when I’ll be back this way again. But thanks for everything. You’ve been great friends and landlords. I’ll miss you and the kids.Give my love to Debbie and Jeff.When I get settled, I’ll give you a call.Love and kisses,AliceP. S. I’m so sorry about the blood stains on your carpet. I had a minor accident with a beer bottle. Jim and I did our best to clean the stains, but you may need to replace the carpet. Maybe you can pay for it by selling my car.Bye,Me

I propped up the note in the middle of the kitchen table.

Just before leaving, I cleaned the saber, dried it thoroughly, and hung it up on the wall above the fireplace where it belonged.

On our way out of town in the van, we stopped at our bank. We both had accounts at the same branch, which was not very strange when you consider the size of Chester. We went in separately, ten minutes apart, and withdrew our money. It didn’t come to much. But added to the cash from Murphy, we had enough to get by on for a while.

Back in the van, we headed for the city limits.

During our travels, we followed the newspaper, TV and radio accounts of what came to be known as the Miller’s Woods Massacre. It was a big story. A huge story. I mean, you’re not supposed to have that sort of slaughter in quiet, small towns like Chester.

Here are the basics.

Elroy’s body, found where we’d left it, triggered a major search of Miller’s Woods. Which led to the discoveries of several shallow graves. They not only dug up Milo, Steve and Marilyn, but two more female corpses that we knew nothing about.

When they found Tony’s dismembered body in the trunk of his car, they figured he’d been done in by the same culprit who cut off Elroy’s head. This connected Tony to the Miller’s Woods Massacre, even though his body was discovered several miles away, in a parking space at Judy’s apartment building.

Which dragged Judy into the picture.

Judy, missing and presumed dead. The authorities seem to think that she’s buried somewhere in Miller’s Woods, but they eventually quit looking for her body.

Murphy Scott, the manager of Tony’s apartment complex, may or may not have been murdered in connection with the Miller’s Woods Massacre. His death might’ve been an unrelated murder, or an accident. They just don’t know. Nicely ironic, if you ask me. The mystery writer’s death, in the midst of so much mayhem, remains a mystery.

In the course of the entire investigation, so far as I know, my name has never come up.

As for all that has happened to Judy and I since leaving Chester, I could make another whole book out of it. But I won’t. Not for now, anyway. Maybe never.