Classmate Murders - Bob Moats (ready player one ebook .txt) 📗

and I went to her car and left. On the way I gave her the rundown on my Mother.

I asked her not to mention the events of the last few days, and explained my concern, she understood. We came up with a devious story of how we met, and what we've been up to.

We got to the house without trouble, but I was on the look out for suspicious activity. I took Penny up to the house, and my Mother flew the door open, and welcomed us in, but mostly Penny. I just stood back as Mom gushed over her. She had us come into the kitchen, and wanted us to visit, but I said we had to do some errands, but maybe this weekend we could stop to visit for a while. She accepted that. She took Penny in to meet my Dad, he acknowledged her barely, and then I had Penny wait in the living room, while I got him into bed. After that was done, Mom came out with me and talked for about ten minutes, then she said she had to get my Dad comfy and tucked in. Penny gave my Mom a hug, and said we'd be back. Mom told her she watched her show almost every day. Penny smiled, and said she'd give her a wave on her next show.

We left, and I didn't feel like going back to her place yet, so I drove to a nearby park, and we just sat on a picnic table, watching kids play. She asked about my son, and I told her a little about him. She looked wistful, and lamented about not being able to have children of her own. She had problems internally, when she was young, and had lost her ability to reproduce. I told her I would share my son with her, she smiled, and got a little tear in her eyes. I kissed the tears, and then she put her head on my shoulder. We sat there for about a half hour more, then headed back.

Buck was already there, and Deacon drove in about ten minutes after us. Penny called the studio, but the staff had gone for the day since it was after 7 P.M., but she did manage to track down Joy at home. Joy said that Morgan never came back, and that they had a nutritionist as guest tomorrow. Joy was concerned about Morgan, but said she would keep the guest roster up and running. Penny thanked her, and hung up.

I was sitting with the A-Team in the family room when she came back in. She had found the cat along the way, and brought him over to me on the couch. Shadow moved over to my lap, made a circle then plopped down. I smiled at Deacon.

"See, cats do like me," I said with a smirk, just as Shadow started to claw at my leg. I winced in pain and Penny picked him up, and laughed. I grinned, "OK, they like me too much. Now I'm a scratching pole."

The rest of the evening was uneventful. We sat, talked, watched TV and then around 11, Penny's head was drooping. I laid her out on the couch, and got a blanket to cover her. Sleepily, she grabbed my hand and kissed it, saying, good night sweet prince, sex later, and drifted off. Buck and Deacon were turning on lights, and checking around the house. All seemed quiet, so we settled in for the night.

Twelve miles to the Southwest, Linda Grolich sat at a desk typing on the laptop that the Bloomfield police allowed her to bring to the safe house. She was busy sending out emails to her friends and family saying that she was taking a short vacation, location unknown, as she wanted privacy. She had a detail of three police detectives, who sat around the apartment playing cards. Linda was not happy with the arrangements, but she saw the video that Waters had made when Trapper stopped by around 9 P.M., and played it for her and the detectives. It made her think again about protection. She did a bit of exploring on the internet for Julia Waters and couldn't believe the prestigious lawyer would stoop to murder for something that happened over forty years ago. She underestimated Waters and her death bed promise. Linda hadn't changed in all those years, she still was arrogant and above everyone else. But this brought her down a bit.

She told the detectives that she was going to take a shower and turn in. They couldn't watch her in the shower, but told her to keep the door open a bit so they could hear anything that wasn't right. She agreed, but closed the door anyways. She showered and pampered her body with lotions and creams to keep her good looks. She dressed in her nicest silk pajamas, and headed to her bed. She laid down on the aging bed in the safe house, probably used by criminals, she thought and shivered. After a half hour of counting her blessings and good fortunes, she finally dozed. In the dark of the room, the closet door opened slowly, and a dark figure crept out. The knife in the hand of the figure poised over her heart, as the other hand picked up a towel from the chair next to the bed, and slowly covered her face and mouth. That same instant the knife plunged into her chest, through the ribs, and into her beating heart. She struggled for only a moment, then went still. Heart beating no more. The figure went over to the window, and opening it, crawled back out to the rope ladder that was attached to the roof. The figure climbed up and over, pulling the ladder up, and then exited through a stairwell, and back down to the rear entrance of a service room. Out by a waiting car in the alley, Julia Waters opened the door for her dear half-brother, Davey. He just said, "It's done, one to go."

The next morning, we all stumbled around getting ready to go to the station. We ate a hurried breakfast this morning, since our regular meals were sadly neglected the past twenty-four hours. We piled into Buck's van and headed to the TV station. We got to the gate and the guard recognized Buck and me from the smoking attack, he just gave a grim little smile, and passed us through. We entered Penny's dressing room and the groupies all hustled to make her happy. The hairdresser still flirted with Deacon, who now wasn't turning red. I think he was enjoying the attention. The floor manager brought Penny her guest sheets, and said they hadn't located Morgan, but they would watch out for him. Word travels fast.

Penny looked radiant as she stepped up to the stage and met with Dr. Cheryl Stopelmoor, the health and beauty consultant that came in, at the last minute, when the nutritionist canceled. I asked John, the floor manager if this woman was checked out and he said she had been on the show a couple of times before, so she was good. I relaxed and Buck took point on the same stool he was on yesterday. Deacon was back stage again, and made a point of having the stage crew check, and re-check, the lighting rigs. He asked a couple of the men to stay up there, and yell if anyone popped up who didn't belong there. They kept a man up there.

The show started, and Buck and I watched carefully every movement in the room. Penny interviewed the guest, who must have used the beauty products on herself, as she was as stunning as Penny. Penny opened up the segment for questions from the audience, it went well. Penny thanked her guest, gave a shout out to my mother, "Hi to Mrs. Richards!", waved, and the end credits rolled. The guest politely left, and Penny came to me and grabbed on. She whispered in my ear that she was so frightened something would happen. She didn't know how much more of this she could take. I hugged her tight, to the point of making my ribs scream, and said I was here. So was Buck and Deacon. I said my mother would cast her in bronze for the greeting. That made her smile, and we went to the dressing room. We just settled in when my cell phone rang, caller ID said private number. I said, "Hello Trapper."

""Richards, bad news, Grolich is dead."

My heart stopped for a second. I turned away from Penny and asked what happened. He said, "someone got in and stabbed her through the heart. Three cops didn't hear or see a goddamn thing. They were playing cards in the living room, Grolich went to bed, and this morning she didn't come out, so they went in, found her. Six stories up, and only one door into the apartment, fucking amazing. They found signs of movement on the roof. They think he came down, into the window and back out that way. I really put my butt in a sling spouting off at the chief, he just blamed the Bloomfield cops. Asshole. I still can't get any extra men for Wickens. I can't figure how they knew where the safe house was."

"Waters is a lawyer, she may have used her connections to find out," I suggested. Trapper agreed, and said he'd check it out and hung up.

Buck came down the hall, I stopped him at the door of the dressing room, pushing him back out into the hall. I told him about Grolich. He cursed loudly.

"You gonna tell Penny?" He asked.

"She deserves it. She is the last one left," I said.

Buck thought a minute and said, "Well, they won't kill her right away, Waters wants her on video, remember?"

I looked at him for a second, then said, "That's hardly cause to celebrate."

I had the same thought, but how would they get her on tape now. Kidnapping would be the only option. I related my thoughts to Buck, he agreed.

"We have to button her down so tight, no one will get near her," I swore.

We went back into the room. I asked all the groupies to leave, it was just the three of us. I sat next to Penny and held her hand.

"I got something to tell you," I started.

She interrupted, "Linda is dead." I nodded.

A choke caught in her throat, she took a breath and started to hyper-ventilate. There was a bag of bagels on the desk, I dumped them, and had her breathe into the bag. After a few moments she calmed.

"What happened?" she asked.

I told her what Trapper said. She looked to me with tears in her eyes.

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" she cried.

"Like hell you are! We aren't going to let anything happen to you," I promised.

Buck spit, "These bastards will have to deal with me, before I let them hurt you!"

She started rocking back and forth, hugging herself, crying. I grabbed her and pulled her to me.

Buck went to the restroom to get a glass of water and brought it to her. She drank it between sobs.

Deacon came to the door, he'd been out making sure the audience left. He stopped as Buck moved him back into the hall, and told him about Grolich. He was stunned.

"So that means Penny is the last," Deacon said.

Buck replied, "Yeah, and we can't get anymore help from you people."