Dawson's Web (17 page)

The day after Jeff and Stephanie had their tryst, he drove back to his house in Malibu.  Similar to all the other times he was pursuing his own interests; his wife was out of town—in Hawaii again on another “layover.”

True to form, she left him a note on their refrigerator reminding him that he had to pay the mortgage again and draw down his trust account. Jeff saw it taped to the door, crumpled it and threw it into the trash.

“Damn her!” He said under his breath. That bitch could be so demanding at times. He wondered why he even married her in the first place.  If she had looked anything like his stepmother, he would have finished her in an instant. But she didn’t and he had no interest in putting himself in jeopardy.

The authorities always target the husband first when a wife is murdered. If he did manage to kill her, he would be an immediate suspect.  Why risk it? He could have his fun without her, and she wasn’t in town that often.

He sighed!

He sorted his mail and paid some bills all the while thinking about Stephanie and the time they had spent together. He honestly had feelings for her, something he hadn’t felt for a woman in so many years. He sipped on his coffee and immediately Slither Brain woke up, ready to inject himself into Jeff’s life once again trying to gain control.

He didn’t like Jeff’s thoughts about Stephanie.

He had to do something about it.

Slither brain spoke. “Jeff, you know she’s not good for you or for us. She’s just not right. I know it and inside you know it too. Besides, she’s not blonde. But if we change that, we can alter the calculus of our entire interaction with her. Come on, you know I’m right.”  The snake could be so convincing. His alter ego was like the serpent in the Garden of Eden who convinced Eve to take a bite from the apple. He was equally as evil.

The reptile was pleased with his logic.

Jeff answered back, sheepishly agreeing. “I know she’s not right for us. But I have feelings for her. It’s a strange sensation, one I haven’t felt in a long time. I’ve forgotten what it feels like to honestly care for someone. I’ve forgotten what it feels like to wonder what that person is doing every moment of every day. I’ve forgotten how lonely I can feel when I’m not with her.”

The snake wasn’t buying it, and he was concerned. When Jeff was like this, he felt he was in second place, something he wouldn’t tolerate.

He could feel Jeff’s feelings most of the time, but the more he tried to get into those feelings of the love he felt for Stephanie, the higher the wall Jeff’s logical brain built the fortress around his heart.

The snake was losing control.

He tried a different tact. “So what are you going to do about it, Jeff? Are you going to divorce your wife, marry this bitch, settle down and live happily ever after? I don’t think you have it in you. I know I certainly don’t. And I’m part of you. When you least expect it, I’m going to coil and strike. I’m going to take care of the situation one way or another. You know that. You know I’m capable, so why not give in now and save us both a lot of heartache in the future?”

Jeff’s fortitude was weakening. The snake made so much sense. It was starting to overwhelm the feeling of love or limerence he had for Stephanie. After all, he had only been with her one night.

One night can’t change everything.

Or could it?

Something inside him convinced him it could.

“I don’t know. I have these feelings of love for her I can’t control. The heart wants what the heart wants. Surely you understand.”

“Oh, come on Jeff. I can sense the feelings, but as the cold-blooded creature I am, I can’t understand them. You’re killing me here, partner. Now quit it. Quit it!”  The snake paused.

“Quit pressing me,” Jeff pleaded holding his hands to his temples and then putting his hands over his ears to stop having to listen to what the snake was saying.

But the snake wasn’t talking.

The conversation was going on in his head.

No matter how hard he pressed on his ears, the hissing voice of reptilian logic came through.

“I’m not pressing you, Jeff. I’m only showing you what’s right for both of us. You know I have your best interests at heart. I have since I’ve been with you. Have I ever let you down? Come on now, have I?” Slither brain painted a perfectly cold-blooded logical argument.

Jeff Dawson was two minds living in one body.

On any given day, he could slip into the reptilian mode or into the sane mode in a heartbeat. The transition was seamless.

No one was able to tell.

His friends sought to try to help him when he was struggling in middle school, but no one really knew how deep or how complete his psychosis was.

Slither brain continued his assault.

“So, Master and Commander, what are you going to do about it?  What are you going to do about Stephanie? Do you want me to go away and leave you and Stephanie alone so you can love her and cherish her and forget me? You’ll be as alone as you were when you were six. Don’t you remember how deserted you felt before I came along and rescued you?”

Jeff remembered being a frightened child, especially after having been brutalized by his Stepmother. He remembered the feelings of abandonment he had felt before his serpent sibling came to help him and give him solace and strength. He remembered how he pleaded with his father when he was trying to convince him his Stepmother was the one who hurt him.  He recalled how, at the darkest moment, his snake counterpart came in and helped to take all the pain away.

Sane Brain lost the argument. He didn’t want to feel those feelings of abandonment and anguish again.

He took his hands away from his ears.

The snake was now firmly in control.

Jeff spoke to his friend. “I’m going to convince her to dye her hair blonde, and then we can play games again. You’d like that, right?” He asked his cold-blooded alter ego; wanting to give back after all he had done for him.

“That’s an exsssssstraordinary suggestion, Jeff. I really do like that. I really do.” Slither brain hissed.

“Then it’s a done deal. We’ll go to CVS and find out what we need to get to make this happen.”

“I like it a lot. Now you are coming over to my side of the fenccce.” The snake hissed again.

“And what side of the fence would that be?”

“It’s the fun ssside, Jeff. It’s the ssside where we both have a good time. We can have fun with Stephanie together. It would be like a ménage a trois.”

Sane Brain and slither brain were actually having a conversation, which rarely happened. Usually when one was in control, the other slept, entirely oblivious to the other alter ego. But the reptile had grown stronger with each murder Jeff committed.

Sane Brain liked the idea of a three-way, where he was allowed to participate, unlike all the other times where he was frozen out of the fun until he heard about it afterwards.

Slither brain liked the way this was going.

He liked it a lot.

He was making progress. Soon he would own Sane Brain and Jeff entirely.

Slither brain continued.  “So what are you going to do exssssactly?”

Jeff didn’t hesitate. He already had his plan. He had conceived it the night in the HBYC when he turned his attention to Stephanie over Charlene when he was called on staring at Charlene too much by Randy.

He got his wallet, got into his car and drove to CVS.

Appropriately, while he was driving the radio was playing “We’re gonna have some fun tonight,” that classic song, Long Tall Sally, by Little Richard.

Normally California weather is extremely predictable—temperatures in the 60’s to 80’s with sunny skies most of the time, like the Neil Diamond song says; however, over the past week, a cutoff low out of the Gulf of Alaska was driven off the coast by high-pressure air mass centered over Nevada. The low-pressure system, spinning counterclockwise, was sucking in moisture from Baja, which had recently experienced a hurricane down off Cabo San Lucas. This resulted in extremely high humidity and afternoon thundershowers, making LA feel more like Florida than the famed city of Angels. It rained so much in parts of Los Angeles earlier that day several apartment buildings had been flooded as roofs collapsed and water poured in from the ceilings. Lightning strikes had even been reported in Newport Beach and the lifeguards had to tell surfers and swimmers to clear the area.

These were the climatic conditions when Jeff drove south on Pacific Coast Highway and found the upscale strip mall shopping center on the West side of PCH in Malibu. The strip mall was opposite Pepperdine University, which sat perched high on a hill on the East side of PCH overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

He parked his car in front of the CVS and entered the drug store, dodging the puddles of fresh rainwater that had gathered in the low spots from the deluge, which had fallen only moments earlier.

The air was heavy and the humidity oppressive. Out over the Pacific, the afternoon thunderheads which had gathered on the horizon could be seen backlit as lightning strikes flashed on an off like large strobes in the sky giving the night a surreal feeling as if something bad was going to happen.

It was 10:30 at night and the CVS drugstore was deserted except for the petite blonde checker who was seated behind the counter, head bowed down while she poured over her Facebook page on her smartphone, seeing if anyone she knew was doing anything special—especially her ex-boyfriend. She was engrossed in checking out the most recent posts made by her friends and him.

She didn’t notice Jeff when he entered the store.

If he had been an armed robber, she wouldn’t have even seen him point the gun at her head and blow a hole the size of Montana in between her eyes, she was that intent on finding out what her ex-boyfriend was doing as she lurked his page.

She kept staring at the attractive redhead who had posted how madly she was in love with her ex-boyfriend. As she continued reading, a rage of jealousy consumed her and she kept flipping through the posts to see if she could find any more about Emily Anderson, the redhead.

Jeff approached the counter and the checker looked up, slightly startled and somewhat embarrassed for not doing her job.  She turned her phone over face down on the counter and asked him “Can I help you?”

Slither brain smiled. He caught a glimpse of what she was doing when he stood in front of her. He saw Johnnie’s name on the Facebook page and stored that in his brain for later use.

“I’m kind of embarrassed to ask this but can you tell me which hair product I need to make my wife a blonde? She’s a brunette now.”

The young girl blushed.  Her dark roots were starting to show. She was also a bottle blonde.

She pointed to the left. “Aisle three is where our hair products are. Why don’t you go over there and look at the boxes of hair dye? Look at the pictures and decide what color you want to make her.

Then she added out of curiosity, “May I ask why you want your wife to be a blonde?” Her voice squeaked like a rusty hinge from the front door of an old house. It was very annoying.

Slither brain played with her. “Let’s just say I know that blondes have more fun.”  He was giddy with excitement in spite of having to listen to her. He also liked teasing this tart standing in front of him.

She blushed.

He turned and went over to aisle three and started examining all of the selections. He found one Clairol Nice ‘N Easy Born Blonde, which had a picture of a young blonde model sporting a pageboy cut and, oddly enough, the model’s eyes were the same shape as his stepmother’s. “This might do fine,” he thought but continued looking at other products to validate his initial selection. He had no idea there were so many shades of blonde--honey blonde, Champaign blonde, platinum blonde, dirty blonde (He liked that!), subtle blonde, blonde highlights, perfect blonde, etc.

His mind was boggled with all the options available to him.

After reading several of the instructions on the boxes, he realized he needed help. He didn’t know the first thing about coloring someone’s hair. He looked over to the clerk, shrugged his shoulder’s indicating his dilemma trying to get her attention.

She was back on Facebook, head down, ignoring him focusing on her ex and didn’t notice him.

“Hey, can you help me here? I’m confused,” he barked.  Slither brain was starting to get pissed. “How dare the little trollop ignore me? If she continues, I’ll slit her from ear to ear right here. I mean it.”

He was now seriously aggravated and the longer she took to come to his aid, the angrier he got. He reached into his front pocket where he kept the knife. It comforted him knowing it was there.

She was reading Emily Anderson’s Facebook page and saw numerous posts from her ex on it. The posts sickened her, especially when she looked at the timing of them.

Several occurred during their supposed “monogamous” relationship with her ex.

The moment she read the post, which he had made on their anniversary declaring his love to Emily saying how much he was looking forward to their date that night (their anniversary), her stomach knotted.   He had canceled their date that night complaining of having to work late, saying he couldn’t celebrate the year they had been together.

Instead, he had two-timed her with Emily.

That bastard! She had had enough.

She suspected something was wrong then.

Now it was confirmed.

Angrily, she slammed the phone down on the counter and finally turned her attention to Jeff.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Slither brain had already opened the knife and concealed it behind his back when he approached the counter and put the box of Clairol in front of her to ring up.

“Here’s what I think I need.”  He wasn’t entirely sure.

He sought validation.

The clerk picked up the box and scanned it. “This is the perfect product. It works on the darkest hair and the color shown on the box is exactly what you get.  In fact, it’s the one I use. I hope you and your wife have fun with it. Be sure to read the directions and use the gloves that are in the box. Otherwise, your hands will be stained. And once you mix the products together, you’ll have to use them in one sitting, or else they’ll go bad.

That will be $12.95,” she said and then turned her attention to Facebook, reading additional posts Emily made.

The more she read, the angrier she got.

She bagged the product and he handed her a $20 bill.

He was still livid for being ignored.

“You know, you could have been more professional giving me help. I feel like I’ve wasted my time here you little bitch. You’re more interested in Johnnie than you are me!”

That got her attention.

“There’s no need to get crude. And how do you know about Johnnie, anyway?”

“How could I not know about the cheating bastard? I stood in front of you while you read the posts. You were so focused, you didn’t even see me. You should have been more attentive. That’s why they pay you. I’ll tell you what, though, make it up to me by having a drink when you close and I won’t file a complaint with your boss tomorrow. I live around here and can come back in an instant and you’d be out of a job.”

He dangled the bait.

The store closed in fifteen minutes.

She bit.

She noticed how ruggedly handsome Jeff was.

Right now, she needed a distraction to take her mind off her ex and she certainly couldn’t afford to lose her job.

She thought about it briefly and then replied. “Okay, but only one. I have school tomorrow. You’ll have to leave now because I have to turn on the motion detectors when I close up.  It will only take a couple of minutes. I’ll meet you in the parking lot. Let me cash out and lock up. There’s a cute little bar not far from here. We can walk there and talk. I could use a friend right now.”  She was angling for him, although he was at least fifteen years older than she was.

“Are you sure? If you don’t come, I will be back, talk to your manager and you will lose your job.”  Jeff (aka Snakey) was very convincing.

He paused and waited. One wrong answer and she was dead, in spite of the fact she wasn’t his type. He’d make an exception for her because she royally pissed him off. He didn’t even want to have sex with her now.

He wanted revenge.

The clerk took one look at Jeff’s eyes and, interpreting his determination for her demise as desire, she immediately answered.

She was enthralled but scared simultaneously about losing her job.

That’s how good Slither brain was. He knew how to lure his victim by playing on their innermost insecurities. The clerk was obviously insecure because her last boyfriend, and probably those before him, had used her and abused her, dropping her to the curb like useless trash.

She attracted losers because she was one.

Slither brain knew that.

He knew it as sure as he knew Jeff. He was smart. He was so much more intelligent than she was and he used that three-minute interaction with her to size her up and put her in his control.

It was almost too easy.

But Slither liked easy.

And so did Jeff.

“I pinky finger promise,” she said as she reached over the counter, smiled and extended her little finger.

Slither brain thought it was very juvenile, but in a way somewhat cute. He smiled, did the same and entwined his little finger around here pinky.

“Promise,” she said blowing him a kiss and then retracted her hand.

The snake slithered toward the exit. He had gotten what he wanted. He took his hand off the knife.

“Meet you in the parking lot in five.”

“Five it is,” she acknowledged.

Ten minutes passed. Slither was getting impatient. He was doubtful she would come. “The little bitch is probably going to exit from the back and leave me here.” He started to develop an alternate plan.

“If she does, I’ll come at her from behind and do her right in the parking lot.” He kept scanning the store. He also scanned the parking lot for video surveillance. There didn’t appear to be any.

Normally he was very cautious, checking out the place he would accost his victims, but this situation was something different. The snake was pissed. He wanted his vengeance because she ignored him, and he was willing to risk it for revenge’s sake.

He was willing to take the chance of being caught. Besides, if he were apprehended, he’d be able to talk his way out of it anyway. He was brilliant, or so he thought. It gave him a sense of being unapproachable by the law. They were mere Pogues in his eyes.

He was the smart one. They’d never catch him.

Finally, the lights went out.

He watched her as she strode across the parking lot dodging the same puddles he had earlier. He imagined what the next two hours would be like and got a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach as he pre-played the climax in his mind.

He already had his game scenario developed.

It involved him and Jeff doing what they did best: loving, caring, teasing, and ultimately taking her life, but only after hours of foreplay.

She approached the car carrying an umbrella.

The rain was imminent.

Thunder clapped in the background yielding a dull roar, like elves playing nine pins in heaven.

“This is perfect,” Jeff and the snake thought simultaneously.

“Well, I guess we can’t walk,” she said noticing the rain, which had recently started.

She waited by the passenger door as the first sprinkles started coming. As the drops hit the puddles, they sent circular ripples out reflecting the streetlight as bands of circular light radiating from the center where each drop hit.

“Can you let me in? It’s only a short drive, but it looks like we might be in for a downpour.”

No sooner had she said this than a lightning bolt cracked only hundreds of yards away and destroyed a transformer on a power pole which burst into flames sending sparks flying.

The clap of thunder was deafening.

The puddles lit up as individual mirrors bathing the parking lot in light.

Then it started pouring.

Jeff quickly got his remote key out and helped her into the car. Even though he was out in the rain for only a few seconds, he was soaked when he got in.

She took out some tissues and handed them to him. “Here, use these. Dry your face off.” She was trying her best to please him. She wanted so to get her mind off Johnnie. She so needed a break and Jeff was her idea of a break.