David, already up for about twenty minutes, dashed, dripping wet and
barely covered by a towel, from the bathroom.
"I'll get it, Edy," he whispered.
"Whoever it is I'll tell 'em we're not available." David could've kicked
himself for setting the call forwarding. After all, it had been a trying
night for both him and Edy, and he wanted her to get her rest. Damn, whoever
it is, it better be important. David had hoped he and Edy could enjoy a
late, leisurely breakfast, then he'd take her home. He remembered Edy's
utter exhaustion once they checked in the nearby bed-and-breakfast. The
moment they got up to the room, Edy fell into the bed and went to sleep
at once.
Smiling at that bit of reminisce, David answered the phone. It
was Maris, and what she told him nearly caused him to drop the towel. Sinking
to the bed, David said, "Are you sure, Maris? When did it happen? Oh God...where
did they take her? OK, let us get dressed then we'll be on our way."
After David hung up the phone, he shook Edy awake, but she protested, "Dave,
come on! I'm tired! Let me sleep."
"No, Edy. You have to get up and get
dressed. Something happened to Clementine. She was shot last night."
******
At the hospital, an unusual gathering of friends sat in the waiting
area, hoping and praying that Clementine would pull through. But it was
not meant to be, according to the doctor on call. The aging blues singer
was barely holding on to life. All she said was, "I need to unburden myself."
"That's what the bus driver said when he found Clementine slumped on the
sidewalk. He said she kept mumbling about 'I gotta tell the cops what I
saw.'," said Maris, who offered David and Edy hot coffee. Maris also noted
that the bus' passengers heard the shot, and saw the car speed pass them.
One sharp eyed passenger had the good sense to jot down the car's license
number. Thank goodness, thought David, that the guilty party would soon
be arrested for murder.
Oh my God, two murders connected with Infrared. I'm like Edy...I don't want this anymore. It was fun, but look at the fallout! That's it! I'm selling the club, marry Edy as soon as my divorce becomes final, that is if Amy backs off. The nerve of her! Carrying on with Xavier Norman, making the man come to the club last night so he can see my "despicable line of business". Damn her! If only she was here right now. I'd tell her to drop the counter suit and go straight to Hell!
Edy, dressed down in
her old dungarees, T-shirt, and denim jacket, looked totally unlike last
night's sexy siren who gyrated her way through an exhausting routine. She
didn't know what came over her. Perhaps the dress was cursed, perhaps it
was Dorine calling to her from the grave demanding justice.
"I bet it was
Xavier," was all she said before burying her face in her hands. She silently
wept as she fathomed all the repercussions of last night. Why did Dorine
choose her to confront Xavier Norman? Why her? It wouldn't make sense until
after Dave's cop friend interrogated Clementine regarding the yet unsolved
Dorine Delish murder.
The party – Dave, Edy, Charlie, Maris – were soon
joined by another player in Dorine's murder: Thad Justin AKA Tom Josten.
Edy didn't know that Justin, the little old man who ran the curio shop
from where she bought Dorine's famed black satin dress, was in actuality
Tom Josten. David didn't have the heart to tell her, but now, with Clementine
presently making her sworn statement, it all has to come out. Edy must
know.
"Say," said Thad Justin as he approached Edy, "that was some show
you put on last night. I kept thinking how much you looked like Dorine
up there, although she didn't quite get as...well...explicit, if you know
what I mean."
Edy didn't know what to say to this man, but in her mind
she replied, "But that wasn't me on that stage. I was possessed, taken
over by some strange force."
Edy drew closer to David as Thad began to
speak again. "Dave," he said, "when the cops finish talking to Clem, I
have to make a confession. I just hope you folks don't hold it against
me."
Edy asked, "Mr. Justin, what is this confession? You did nothing wrong.
You just sold me a dress that was cursed."
She now believed what the Infrared
girls kept saying all along, but she pooh-poohed it as utter nonsense.
"It's all true," she said to Thad, and nothing more. Maris and Charlie,
watching this confab, wondered if Edy had somehow discovered the truth.
They also wondered what Clementine actually witnessed that day Dorine met
her end.
"I just hope," Charlie said to Maris, "that Clem gets her story
straight. After all, it's been almost forty years..."
******
Sgt. Jack Hendren, Dave's cop friend, had reopened the Dorine Delish
murder investigation at Dave's request. At first Hendren didn't believe
all Dave related about Tom Josten, that the original suspect was alive
and going under the alias Thad Justin. But it all checked out last night
when Jack, off duty of course, decided to take in the show at Infrared.
He, too, witnessed a possessed Edy point assumedly at Xavier Norman, then
Clementine did the same thing. He also saw how Norman gave Justin the brush-off
after the latter said, "Don't you know me, son?"
Maybe, Jack thought, with Clementine shot just moments after Infrared closed, Norman is behind this latest violence. No doubt the car the bus passenger described belonged to Norman, and the plate number matched! Now, all that needs to be done in get Clem's eyewitness account on tape. Jack hoped that the old woman would be strong and coherent enough to get her story straight; after all it was nearly forty years ago. And the woman hovered between life and death.
Even so, she was a lifelong junkie; her mind is probably so messed up from dope that, perhaps, she doesn't remember a thing. Jack Hendren's fears were put to rest the moment he turned on the tape recorder and placed the official statement form before her to sign.
"Miss Emerson, as soon I press 'record', tell me everything you remember
from that morning. Just take your time."
Clementine Emerson – odd that not too many knew her last name – laid
in her hospital bed clinging to life. The bullet had hit her in a bad place,
nearly severing her aorta and caused much internal damage. The elderly
singer, given her poor health, could no longer fight for her life. Her
kidneys had begun to shut down; it was only a matter of time before she
exited this life for the next. With labored breath, Clementine recounted
a forty year memory...
"I was on my way to the bakery...you know, I liked
those doughnuts, and I wanted to get some fresh...On the way, I decided
to drop by Dorine's place. We were friends from way back...she used to
come by the Blues Room when she wasn't working...I'd come by the Pink Flamingo
to catch her act."
"Anyway, I went up the stairs to her apartment, and I heard shouting. I thought it was Tom Josten, her married lover, but
I was wrong. I heard her screaming, 'Don't, please, no, don't!'. She sounded
as if she had a hard time breathing...I heard another voice in the apartment...sounded
like a woman's. She kept telling someone, 'Tie it tighter!'...There was
all this struggling...it sounded like Dorine was fighting for her life.
"I got scared and dashed up the stairs but stayed
hidden. I just peeped over the bannister to see the door open up. There
he was, with his mother...Alice, Tom's wife, and Ian, his boy...running
down the stairs. She was yelling at him 'Your father won't be seeing her
again!' I followed them out, but they didn't see me. Alice slapped the
boy and told him, 'Stop that crying! You did it for me, remember?'
I went back inside the building to see Dorine's neighbor peek in the girl's apartment. She then screamed, 'Murder!
Murder!', and the other folks on the floor began to gather 'round. I didn't
stay there for long since the cops would think I did it. I just went on
home, forgot about my doughnuts, and shot up all my smack. Just to forget
what I saw. I'm sorry I ain't said nothing all these years, but now that
girl can rest in peace."
******
"Did she tell you everything?," asked David.
Jack answered, "Yeah, I
got it all on tape. She lasted long enough to sign the statement."
David wept at the loss of a good friend, and Edy cried alongside him.
Not a dry eye in sight as everyone mourned Clementine's passing.
"Did she
have any family?," Edy asked.
"Not that I know of," replied Charlie. "Clem
never did get married, no kids, no sibs."
In that waiting room, one person finally spoke up, someone who should've
said something forty years ago. It was Thad Justin who said to Sgt. Hendren,
"Say, I need to unburden myself as well. I've gone forty years protecting
that no good son of mine." His words were couched in righteous anger as
he continued, "Alice made him do it! Ian was just thirteen, but Alice put
him up to it! He killed Dorine 'cause Alice said so! And she said I'd take
the blame for it. So what if my kid loses his mind 'cause his mom went
wacko 'cause she didn't want a divorce. Dorine and I were in love. I wanted
to marry her, make her respectable and all. Ian took in a lot of what his
mother said, that Dorine was trash and just another loose woman who didn't
deserve to live! Can you beat that? And Alice told me it was Ian who stood
outside the Pink Flamingo that night of Dorine's last performance. Ian
told me himself that he had a 'thing' for Dorine. He fancied himself as
a ladies' man, and had this big crush on her. He kept saying he imagined
himself as Dorine's lover, not me! No wonder the kid was so confused! He
believed all Alice told him, and he got jealous 'cause Dorine was mine!"
That said, Thad Justin – make that Tom Josten – broke down in tears.
He then said, "Alice soon did herself in. I think the guilt got to her.
I disappeared right after news of the killing got out. Ian was placed in
a bunch of foster homes, then he got adopted by some rich family. They
changed his name to Xavier and gave him everything money could buy. But
the kid was damaged goods; he got in trouble a lot when he was in prep
school then at college. Something about leaning pretty hard on the girls,
if you catch my drift. His folks just bought his way out of one scrap after
another, and he got away with all of it. I didn't return to town until
a few years ago, when I took the name Justin. I bought that shop across
from Infrared. I thought I had my tracks covered, that is until, Edy over
there came in and bought that dress."
Dead silence followed Tom Josten's startling confession. Dave approached
Tom, saying, "Are you sure this is the truth? After all, Clem did see your
son and wife leaving Dorine's apartment right after Ian killed her. And,
tell me something else: Do you know your son's role in my divorce case,
and did you know that your son may be in hot water with the university?"
He pointed to Edy, adding, "You see this lady? She was one of Norman's
victims. He harassed her to sleep with him, even fathered a baby that died
at birth. Then he leaned on Maris' daughter and countless of other unsuspecting
girls. Your son, Tom, I'm afraid, is a sexual predator, and now he's murder
suspect #1."
Tom Josten stood there in silence, then said, "I had an inkling he'd
do that, get women in trouble. I guess it all catches up with him now.
I really wanted to be a good dad to him, but it was all Alice. She wouldn't
even let me correct the boy all while he was growing up."
He then turned
to Jack and said, "Do your duty and arrest my son. I'm done with trying
to save him, and he's old enough to suffer the consequences. He can't get
away with murder, Dorine's or Clementine's."
******
Damn that Edy, he thought at first, but the young woman who filed the initial
complaint was not who he thought. It was Allison, Maris' daughter. Maris...doesn't
she work at that place? Damn it! Why won't those sleazy people ever
quit!
First it was that trashy Dorine, who I loved, but Dad had to get
his two bits in first. He actually 'loved' her, wined and dined her while
Mom cried every night and day. Mom hated the very name 'Dorine', and she
said I should help her save her marriage to Dad. She suggested I kill Dorine,
make her pay for the damage she was doing to our family. Yes, it's all
her fault! If she hadn't shimmied her way into Dad's life then we all would've
been happy. But no! Dad kept seeing her almost every night at that Pink
Flamingo. Dirty, sleazy sluts strutting around taking their clothes off
in front of sleazier men! Dad wasn't like that before he met her.
She messed up his life. Dorine got what she deserved, and so did Clementine. I had to shoot her, to shut her up. Probably dead now, and good riddance! The nerve of that junkie bitch! Pointing her finger at me and accusing me of murder. I only did it for Mom!
Xavier Norman kept pacing, not wanting to calm himself enough to think
rationally. It all came crashing down, the nicely charmed life he led.
From age fourteen, Ian Josten became Xavier Norman, adopted son of a wealthy
lawyer. His adopted parents gave him all he could possibly wish for: expensive
clothes, a car, private schools, vacations abroad, everything he missed
during his brief life as Ian Josten. He successfully buried that part of
his life, but he could never shake those conflicting feelings he had for
Dorine. In a way, he came to believe that all women were either dangerous
seductresses (like Dorine and her stripper ilk, including Edy) or self-sacrificing
martyrs like his mother.
Thirteen was a delicate age where Ian started
to notice girls, but he nursed this unsettling crush – lust? – for Dorine
Delish, a woman totally unattainable. And the subsequent women he encountered
during the past forty years were expected to fulfill that ideal of the
exotic, erotic burlesque queen.
He remembered one time, after his father had made those visits to the Pink Flamingo more frequent, when he sneaked out of the house. He went to the famed burlesque house, actually sneaked in the back door without being caught, then got a glimpse of all those delectable females. Watching them prance around in every state of undress gave Ian a charge like nothing else. He knew he could have none of these women, especially Dorine. His pre-pubescent lust was so great that to relieve himself, he indulged in girlie magazines, satisfying his dark unquenched desires through wildly erotic dreams and fantasies that ended in frantic masturbation.
One night, after he sneaked back home after following his dad and Dorine to the latter's home, his mother caught him staring at photos of half-naked women and wildly relieving himself. She didn't say anything negatively but used her son's confused sexual dilemma to her own advantage. This he remembered throughout his young life: there will always be a woman to cover up all his sins no matter how grievous.
It was nearly noon, and Xavier hastily packed a few bags. He knew the
police would be here to arrest him, and he took matters into his own hands.
He had to get out the country and fast. No way was he going down in shame.
To be sure, the university could discharge him on grounds of sexual misconduct;
he could be facing two counts of murder. So, on this day, Xavier rounded
up phony passports and other identification, then made travel arrangements.
A one-way ticket to any country that didn't extradite criminals wanted
in America would do for now. Xavier had the means and money to travel abroad,
and stay one step ahead of the cops.
Just as he picked up his bags and headed for the door, someone knocked.
Oh no! They found me already? But how! Then it hit him hard! Dad...Dad
is Thad Justin, and I bet he tipped the cops. I could deny it all, say
I was forced to kill Dorine because Mom told me to. Then there's that Clementine
What's Her Name...I had to shut her...
Another knock followed by repeated ringing of the door bell. Then a
voice shouted out, "Xavier! Open up!" It was Amy. With an exasperated sigh,
Xavier opened the door only to see an very angry Amy Tyler briskly enter
without even so much as "Hello."
"Amy, I'm...I'm on my way out."
She eyed
the packed luggage, replying, "So I see. Tell me, were you thinking of
splitting without me?" Then she added, "We need to talk...about Dorine, and what
happened last night."
TO BE CONTINUED...Go to chapter 8!
Copyright©2003, 2004 by P.R. Parker. All Rights Reserved.