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

a door, someone opened it and walked into three guns pointed at his head. He quietly said "Shit," and we asked him if he knew Davey Morgan. He said he'd heard about Morgan but hadn't seen him. I asked where they store small VHS camera equipment and he said in the electronics office locker. He told us the directions and we left him, after warning him to get out of the building before he gets killed, and take anyone else with him. He nodded and headed fast out the way we came in.

In another part of the building, way back in a secluded prop room, Morgan was tying Penny to a prop bed, spread out. She was gagged and was just coming out of unconsciousness, having been drugged by Waters. Julia was setting up the video camera they had stolen from the electronics locker and popped in the tape marked "Wickens". Julia then walked over to a long extension cord, laying on a prop table, and yanked off the female end, stripping the wires with a knife, she had in her pocket. She cleaned the ends and bared the wires, separating the ends so they didn't touch as she plugged the other end into the wall socket. She carefully tapped the wire ends together and produced a nice spark, she grinned.

Davey ripped open Penny's tank top and cut her shorts with the blade he carried, then stood back admiring her almost naked body.

"Can I have fun with her before she dies?" He said.

"No, dear brother. You can't." She snarled. "You've already had enough fun fucking that biker chick."

"Yeah, well, it was fortunate she was involved with this bitch, we might have never found her."

"OK, that is the only time I'll look past your screwing another woman. Only I get that pleasure," she smiled seductively. "This plan works even better, we film the confession from her, and get it on her own TV station as one of their breaking news stories. These media bastards love gruesome news, they feed on it and pander to the masses of mindless scum, soaking in the gory details."

Occasionally, Davey was a little afraid of Julia, her mind would go off in strange directions, but she was a good lay, so he played along.

Penny was making small noises now. Julia went to her carrying the plugged in extension cord. She got real close to Penny's face and snarled, "You will do what I ask or I will make you regret it." She snapped the ends together and a spark flashed in front of Penny's eyes. She panicked, but with the duct tape on her mouth she couldn't scream. Julia brought the wires to Penny's abdomen and touched the skin quickly, causing Penny to tremble in pain. Julia laughed.

"Now my dear Penny, I'm going to tell you what you're going to do. You will listen and obey, or this will happen," she hit Penny again with the wires, Penny stiffened again. "Again, over and over till you get your part right." She hit Penny again, a bit longer this time. Penny writhed in agony, until Julia backed away. "Davey, remove the tape from her mouth." She snapped the wires together so Penny could see and said, "Don't scream, or cry out, or I'll make you suffer."

Davey yanked the tape, causing Penny to cry out in pain.

"Davey, that wasn't nice. You're hurting her." Julia laughed.

Back in the electronics room Deacon found the cabinet that had video cameras. We did a quick inventory and deduced one camera was not in it's assigned spot. We went back out the electronics room door and we decided to split up, three people looking would be better than everyone together. Buck said we should fire a shot to let the others know we found something. I said that might work but most of the studio was sound proofed. I said to use our cell phones. I went down one hall, Buck down another and Deacon went through a door to another part of the studio.

I walked through the darkened halls that led to the back of the building. I went down a side hall, that had three doors. In the dark, I didn't see a short step stool in front of me and banged my knee and leaned into a table with electrical things on it. The table tipped a bit and dumped the contents on the floor making a horrible racket. I looked around at the doors, waiting to see if anyone would come out.

No one did, but I didn't know that Julia and Davey had heard the noise. Julia told Davey to watch Penny. She went through the prop room to the entrance, listening at the door. She opened it a crack and peeked out. She saw me going into one of the other three doors marked "Studio C". I had gone in a ways and walked around the set, it looked like a sport's show setting, I didn't see Julia slip quietly in. I took my cell phone out and called Buck, he said he hadn't seen anything or anyone, I told him I was in studio C. Just as I was going to say good-bye, Julia came up behind me, with a baseball bat she must have picked up from the set, and started hitting me with it. I dropped my phone trying to ward off Julia's attack, but she kept up. I fell off to one side, and found a spotlight housing on the floor, picking it up I started to swing up at Julia, hitting her around the knees, causing her to scream in pain. The housing had pointed edges and I must have made contact with her leg. She limped away from me, dropping the bat, by the door, as she went out.

She went back into the prop room and took her gun away from Davey. She told him to stay there again, and she went back out, carefully. I had already came out behind her from Studio C, and went into the other door, this time with my gun drawn. I was lucky to have picked the door that Julia wasn't behind, she came out just missing me. I went into this room, it looked like a small storage room, the walls lined with shelves containing what looked like video tape canisters. I found another door, at the back of the room, I opened it carefully and went through after listening for sounds. I heard something and went in.

Davey was pacing and irritable, mumbling about how Julia treats him like some puppet. Penny could see he was losing it, and stiffened when he walked to her, sat on the edge of the bed by her.

"Hey, pretty Penny. You always looked so good when you pranced around the station." He moved his hand up her stomach, to her breasts and back down between her legs. She spit at him and he smacked her. "Look bitch, you aren't in any position to do that. I'm in charge here!"

"I think Julia would argue that," She hissed. He picked up the extension cord and started hitting her with it all over her body, causing her to scream in pain, bouncing on the bed. He stopped.

"You bounced so nice on that bed. I'm going to give you something to bounce for." He started to undo his belt and his pants, before he dropped them he came to the edge of the bed. He let his pants fall and pulled down his briefs. Penny closed her eyes expecting the worse to come.

"Now bitch, see what a real man is like." he hissed.

"Only if she can find a real man, cause you aren't." I said and he turned, looking me in the eyes with terror, as I fired my gun, into his chest, until he went down.

I just stood there not believing I had actually shot a human being.

Just as I looked over to Penny, I was shocked to hear a blood curdling scream behind me. I turned to see Julia standing behind me, she must have followed me through the storage room. She was pointing her gun and howling that I killed her brother. I was sure I couldn't raise the gun in my hand in time to stop her from shooting me, but I figured what the hell. I started to bring my gun up when something came flying from around a set wall, hitting Julia square in the head, forcing her body forward and down to the ground. Buck came barreling around, baseball bat in hand, standing over her body waiting for movement, but there was none.

I was shaking, but managed to say, "What's the matter, your gun doesn't work?" He grinned and said it was more dramatic this way.

Deacon came flying in, from the front, saw Davey on the floor first and asked who shot him?

"I did," I said in a daze, still hurting from the beating I took from Julia.

He came to me, taking the gun from my hand, and wiped it with his handkerchief, holding it in his hand, saying, "Jim, you never touched this gun! You understand?" He looked to Buck and said,"I came in here, saw Morgan threatening Penny and I shot him, OK, understood?" We nodded.

I ran to Penny covering her with a blanket, from the side of the bed, and untied her hands. She was sobbing and shaking worse than I had seen her shake. I just held on and whispered, “It's all over, baby, it's all over.”

Buck and Deacon came to the edge of the bed, then they heard a noise behind them. Julia had risen, aiming her gun at Penny and fired just as Deacon jumped in front of the bed. Buck brought out his .38 and blasted Julia, Deacon was on the floor, but took the gun I had and fired until the gun was empty. Julia fired again, but this time at the ceiling, as she was dropping backwards to the floor.

Deacon was hit in the groin towards his hip, he looked up and smiled, "It's over now."


*

Chapter Eighteen

Trapper was beside himself after he got there. The Southfield police let him have lead, since the mess was attached to his series of murders. They took charge of the gate guard's murder, but said that the bodies of Morgan and Waters could be transported to Clinton Township, for autopsy and processing.

The EMTs were busy putting Penny on a gurney, she was under sedation, so she wasn't really aware of her surroundings. Then, they were busy trying to figure where'd they get a gurney big enough to handle Deacon, we all laughed. They did manage to get him out to the ambulance and hauled him off. Trapper had Buck, and I, in an office, in the building. It was now about 2 A.M. and everyone was tired, but we answered his questions and gave him our statements. He interrogated Deacon before they took him off to the hospital, and was going to base his findings on that, but wanted to hear our side.

We related everything from the incident at the New Baltimore bar to the shooting of Julia Waters. Trapper, said to downplay Buck's involvement in the shooting. It would get complicated for Buck. We got our stories together and called it a night. I asked the one of the Southfield cops where they took Penny to and he said they were transporting her up to Mt. Clemens