The Eyes Have It by L. M. Reed
Chapter 17
Where am I? I wondered groggily.
I tried to lift my eyelids but they felt like they weighed a ton and my head ached abominably. I felt a prod in my side.
“Wake up already,” a voice said impatiently.
Finally able to open my eyes a slit, I recognized the figure standing over me.
“Becky…What’s going on?” I asked in confusion glancing around, my vision a bit blurry.
I tried to sit up, but something was holding one of my arms and jerked me backwards.
“I thought you’d never come to,” she complained. “I didn’t hit you that hard.”
“You…you hit me?” I asked uncomprehendingly.
I remembered being in the bathroom on a stepstool painting carefully close to the ceiling and hearing a noise coming from the living room. Getting down off the stepstool, I recalled a feeling of anticipation wondering if James had gotten away early and decided to surprise me like he had at my apartment the night before. As I walked through the doorway to the front room, I felt a pain exploding in my head and then…nothing.
“You hit me,” she mimicked spitefully “You poor baby.”
The fuzziness in my head was beginning to clear and as I took in my surroundings, I noticed that I was in the bedroom of the cottage with one wrist handcuffed to the radiator pipes. Cautiously I tried to sit up, scooting myself closer to the radiator to prevent being wrenched back as I had on the first attempt. For a moment, the room spun and my head felt like it was going to split in two. I stopped briefly to regain my equilibrium and then continued until I was sitting upright.
My first questions seemed to have irritated Becky so I sat in silence, waiting for her to initiate more conversation. She glared at me in silence until she couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Don’t you want to know what I’m going to do to you?” she finally asked in frustration.
I was unsure how to respond. Should I keep quiet? Ask questions? Try to reason with her? I was scared silly watching the expressions play across her face. She was obviously angry, but she was always angry and I wasn’t sure what had pushed her over the edge. Maybe if I stayed calm…kept her talking like I had seen on TV shows, I could figure out what to do.
“How did you know where to find me?” I asked as calmly as I could.
“I’ve been following you for weeks,” she sneered, “but you were too stupid to notice.”
So it had been Nat’s car behind me. Becky didn’t have one and Nat was always letting her borrow the Benz so Becky could run errands for her. Nat contemptuously referred to Becky as her unpaid lackey.
Richard was the only one I had told and he had discounted it as my imagination since Nat had been with him most of the time. I knew that, but Becky didn’t. Maybe I could bluff her.
“I did notice Nat’s car following me,” I said with more bravado than I felt. “I told Richard. Since Nat was with him, he’ll figure out it was you driving it.”
“Richard was with one of his doll-faces when you left campus,” she said scathingly. “I made sure of that. You were the last thing on his mind.”
“So you’ve been planning this for a while,” I stated matter-of-factly.
“Down to the last detail,” she responded with satisfaction. “No one is home in the big house, your housekeeper friend, Elsie the Cow, took the old bat out somewhere in the car and the old goat is never home during the daytime.”
“Does Natalie know you’re here?”
I tried to sound detached, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. I needed to know if Natalie was involved, if for no other reason than my own peace of mind.
“Not exactly,” Becky conceded reluctantly. “But she’ll be proud of me when she finds out.”
“Finds out what?”
She was exactly like the people on TV who wanted to tell everything before…before what…? Was she planning to hurt me? Surely, she wouldn’t try to kill me; that type of thing didn’t happen in real life. But how could she think she would be able to get away with anything, she had to know I would tell. Taking in her crazed eyes, I suddenly realized that I wasn’t supposed to live long enough to be a threat to her. I wasn’t certain how I knew, I just knew.
“That I taught you a lesson Miss Goody Two-Shoes. Natalie said someone needed to bring you down a peg or two and I’m going to show her that I’m the smart one, that I was able to do it, and that you were too stupid to stop me. Then she’ll see that you weren’t worthy to be her best friend.”
“Natalie and I aren’t best friends.”
I needed to keep her talking. As soon as we ran out of conversation, my time was up. My only hope was to stall long enough for Elsee or Mr. Fowlkes to return home.
“You know her better than I do,” I said bitterly, and it was true, Nat and I barely knew each other although we’d spent our childhoods together.
“She still calls you her best friend,” Becky said furiously. “No matter how much I hint, she just laughs, but once you’re gone Natalie and Richard will turn to me. They’ll see how weak and stupid you were. How easy it was for someone to get rid of you.”
I could see the speculative look in her eyes. Desperately searching for a way to sidetrack her, to keep the dialogue rolling, my mind was suddenly a blank. Becky smiled cruelly at the blind panic I couldn’t hide.
“I was going to shoot you and make it look like suicide,” she said slowly, savoring her own genius, “but then I saw all of this lovely flammable stuff lying around and I changed my mind. Everybody loves a good fire. Too bad you weren’t smart enough to smoke outside. Fire hazard you know.”
“I don’t smoke,” I protested. “No one’s going to believe that.”
“There’ll be plenty of evidence,” she said slyly. “I’ll make sure of it. Everyone will just think you were hiding your nicotine addiction. You won’t look so perfect then. They’ll all wonder what else you were covering up.”
“Everyone will know it wasn’t an accident because of the handcuffs,” I pointed out triumphantly.
“See how you’re always a step behind,” she said derisively. “Natalie thinks you’re so smart. I brought chloroform to knock you out and then I can take off the handcuffs before I start the fire. Wouldn’t want you escaping now would we? Guess I best get started, don’t want to be late meeting Natalie at the party tonight which you, sadly, won’t be attending. Don’t worry…I’ll be there to comfort her when she finds out about your untimely demise.”
She left the room and I could hear pouring liquid…paint thinner. The acrylic paint I was using in the bathroom couldn’t be cleaned with just water like the latex paint I had used everywhere else; it required paint thinner. Ironically, I’d furnished my own murder weapon.
I was defeated and she knew it. There was no way I could win. I only had one arm free and my head still hurt while she was in prime condition.
I felt like laughing at the paradoxical situation, but I knew it would be hysteria, not true amusement. I had mistakenly thought that my father was my most dangerous adversary and with him out of the way had finally relaxed and started enjoying life for the first time only to discover a more sinister threat from an unexpected quarter.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes as images flashed through my mind…images of James, Elsee, Richard, and the Fowlkes. My life was finally worth living, and it was about to end. I clenched my jaw in determination. I wasn’t going down without a fight.
When Becky returned I saw she was carrying a white cloth encased in a clear plastic bag.
“Nap time,” she said mockingly. “My only regret is that you’ll sleep through the pain…pity.” She sighed melodramatically. “Oh well, I suppose you can’t have everything.”
No matter how hard I fought, kicking with both feet and clawing with my one free hand, I was in a weakened condition and it was a losing battle. With the first whiff, I felt the darkness begin to close over me