Page 48 of Resist Me Not
The things people turn into landmarks.
But through my camera, I can also see very clearly into the living room and upstairs bedroom, even with the curtains drawn. The nurse isn’t very good at making sure the drapes are completely closed, and the zoom on this camera is top tier. Right now, I am confirming her routine, and she is ohso predictable. She cashes all his checks and keeps most of the money for herself, which she then uses to get prescription drugs not prescribed to her or him from a local peddler who is arguably just as bad as she is. Who knows where he gets his stash from. Probably from more people like this nurse, who take it from their patients. But I can’t kill everyone I come across who deserves it, tempted as I am. I have something else planned for him.
If the nurse sticks to her routine today, she will enjoy a bender tonight and need a restock tomorrow. I will use the time to work on my next article, and then, tomorrow night, I will follow her to her dealer’s favorite spot, a dark alley in a mediumly bad part of town behind a convenience store that does not have outside cameras. He always leaves quickly, and she stays to look through her score. While she is alone, I will slice her open from throat to navel and leave her there to bleed out.
Not all my victims need to be chopped up and bagged. Some, when I’m lucky, can have their deaths blamed on other lowlifes—like her dealer. Later, I will place an anonymous noise complaint about the man’s home to be sure someone discovers his nurse is missing.
But that’s for tomorrow. Right now, I’m multitasking.
I check my phone again to see Walker’s reply.
Walker: Can I call you?
I call him. I have enough on Nurse Ratchet.
“Everything all right?” I ask when Walker answers. I made the call through my Bluetooth headphones so my hands remain free and I can start dismantling the tripod.
“Your voice helps. It’s just… that detective?” Walker whispers, even though I know he is at home alone. “He knew things.”
We haven’t talked about it other than Walker’s admittance about not showing the picture. “What things? Tell me.” I smile atthe occasional person who passes me on the sidewalk. The nurse is taking her lunch now, likely having not yet fed her patient, and will splurge on something at a restaurant above her actual means a few blocks down.
I hurry to pack up so I can follow. The tripod dismantles small enough to fit in my messenger bag when I bring it along, and I can use some lunch too.
Walker tells me in more detail about his discussion with the detective a few days ago. He is aware of me, which is a problem, but all he seems to know is that Walker is seeing me, and I was spotted in Curtis’s neighborhood. No concern there. I have receipts of my stay at the hotel, and it is where Walker and I met. He says he said as much to the detective, but only that.
“There is nothing to worry about, Walker,” I assuage him. I am following the nurse now. She is indeed a creature of habit, the easiest victim to claim. She has basically drawn me a map of exactly where, when, and how to slaughter her. So considerate. We have one more block to go before the restaurant. I even smile at her when I step up beside her to wait at the crosswalk.
“Maybe to you,” Walker says. “Worrying is kind of all I’ve been doing lately.”
“You did very well,” I tell him and tap my ear when the nurse glances at me so she knows I am talking to someone else. She nods back at me, cordial as can be, having no idea I will be slicing her open tomorrow. It sends a unique thrill through me that I will not deny is quite gratifying. Arousing even. So much so that it gives me an idea. “You deserve a reward, something to help you relax and take your mind off things.” I say it all very huskily and promising.
Enough that even the nurse straightens her posture before we cross the street.
If you’ve wondered whether I am aware of how much my voice can affect people, I assure you, I am very aware and use it to myadvantage often. But never have I found it quite as enjoyable as when I cause Walker’s breath to quicken.
“What kind of reward?”
“Are you busy right now?”
“I’m just at home. I was studying but I’m taking a break.”
“Where at home? On the sofa? In the bedroom?”
The nurse slows her pace to keep parallel with me, so very obviously listening in.
I don’t attempt to hush my voice.
“Do you want me in the bedroom?” Walker asks.
“Oh, I want you in the bedroom, on the sofa, and in the bath again. If your apartment had a balcony, I would want you out there too, up against the side of the building where everyone could watch.”
The nurse trips over her feet, having reached the restaurant a pace or two ahead of me, and because she has already started to open the door but nearly loses her hold in her stumbling, I catch it and hold it open for her with a wider smile.
“Now, tell Daddy what you’re wearing.”
I stare at her expectantly, waiting for her to enter the restaurant so I can release the door. With a deep flush to her cheeks, she finally does. I am poised to follow her inside, but the building has a rather convenient alley of its own. I let the door swing closed and head there instead, finding a hidden alcove where no one else will overhear me or see what I do next.
I can almost sense the nurse’s disappointment, wondering where I went to, maybe wishing I had gotten a table right next to hers and continued the conversation within earshot. Tempting as it was to have done that, I am half hard and in need of my own relief, and that is something I will not do where I am about to eat lunch.
