You Belong To Me (29 page)

 
Julie had just gotten home; she threw her backpack onto the sofa and flopped down next to it. She was tired, hungry and cold.  A nice hot shower should do the trick; she thought to herself and began shedding her clothes. She took another glance at the framed photograph of Ethan she had so lovingly placed on her mantle top. “It’s finally over baby,” she cooed. Danielle Martins is out of our life for good. And soon we’ll be together,” she said as she placed the .22 she’d just used next to the photo.

By the time the police had finished questioning Mitch and Gail, two hours had gone by.
 The second they were allowed to leave the scene, Mitch scooped up his mother and raced to the hospital.  Gail sat quietly in the truck, she wanted Mitch to be able to concentrate on the roads, they were getting slick and she didn’t want to make him any more upset than he already was. During the drive Mitch let his thoughts wander to Danielle, he remembered the night before the party they had made such sweet love and now she was fighting for her life and until he got there, she would go through it alone.

“Mom, start making phone calls,” he urged and handed her his cell phone. “All the numbers are programmed in make sure you call Shayla and Jason first.”

“Of course son,” was all that she could say, as she immediately took to making the calls.

As the doctors worked feverishly on getting the bullet out and stopping the bleeding, Mitch was just pulling into the hospital parking lot.  Gail told him to go on ahead as he parked the truck. Fear and dread overtook him as he ran towards the emergency room. Once inside, a nurse instructed him that the doctors were still working on Danielle and as soon as there was word, someone would come and get him. For now, there was nothing he could do but wait. 

When his mother joined him, a nurse approached. She asked if they knew of Danielle’s immediate family, when Mitch told her that she had none, the nurse frowned.
  “Wait, why do you need to know if she has family? Do you need a blood donor or something because I’ll do that, I’ll give you whatever she needs please just help her,” Mitch was a wound up bundle of nerves.

“No sir, she doesn’t need blood,” the nurse said looking solemnly at him.

“Oh god,” Gail said and held onto his arm.

“Sir it doesn’t look good and the doctor has asked me to find out about her immediate family,” she said before quietly turning and heading back towards the operating room.

Just then, Mitch felt his legs give way. “Whoa hold on buddy,” Jason said as he and Shayla grabbed hold of him. They led him to the sitting room chairs and watched as he collapsed and broke down in his friend’s arms. Gail tried her best to console her son. “Mitch sweetheart, Danielle’s a fighter, she’s going to pull through this you’ll see,” she said hoping to sound more confident than she looked.

“She’s right Mitch.” Shayla was sobbing.

“She’s so strong, look at what she’s been through huh? She’s going to be alright, I just know it.”

Mike returned to the station, not only was this supposed to be his night off but it was also supposed to be he and his wife’s date night. They were out having a romantic dinner when he got the call. A woman had knocked on Danielle Martins door and when she opened it, shot her in cold blood. And until Danielle wakes up, if she wakes up, Mitch’s mother Gail was the only witness, if you could call it that. Gail had only been able to ascertain that the assailant was a woman and that she mentioned Ethan’s name. “Let’s get out the files boys and go over every detail,” he said to his team.

“What are we looking for boss?”

“We’re looking for any female acquaintances of Ethan Tillitson’s, I don’t care if it’s a mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, or the fucking girl at the check-out counter of the mini-mart, any females mentioned in this paperwork, I want them interviewed,” he said with fierce determination.  Mike swallowed down a mouthful of his coffee. “We don’t stop until we catch this crazy bitch.”

The night was still pitch black and he could
see the glistening snow falling around the lights that bordered the deserted parking lot. Victoria and Joe had arrived along with his father and they all sat in the waiting room, Mitch was the only one standing. Victoria stood up and joined him at the window. “You know our girl is going to pull through honey, don’t you give up hope Mitchell Conway.”

She could see the redness in his eyes, he’d still been sobbing when they arrived. His dad had to take him for a walk out in the cold to calm him down.
 

“I can
’t lose her again Vic, I just can’t,” he said, his voice shaky.

“And you won’t honey, you won’t. You wait and see, any minute now that doctor is going to come out of that room and tell us that Danielle is awake and asking to see you,
  so you just think about that mister alright?”  She told him and put her arms around him.

Once she stepped out of the shower, Julie set about putting the rest of her plan in motion. She’d laid out her new pair of satin pajamas that she’d bought especially for tonight and poured herself a glass of wine. “Soon baby, soon,” she smiled at the photograph of Ethan. “First I’ve got to write my note don’t I?” She spoke to him. “I want them to know that I'm the one who shot Danielle and that I am not ashamed nor am I scared. I did it and I'm glad that I did,” she raised her glass to the photo and sat down on the floor and began to write.

By the time the doctors had finished removing the bullet and stabilizing her, the sky was turning from black to gray. Mitch was the first one to hea
r the doors open and to see the doctor walking out. The expression on his face was one that Mitch was unable to read.

“Doctor?” He asked. His voice full of uneasiness.

“She’s going to pull through,” he said and let out a heavy sigh. “It was touch and go for quite a while but we were able to remove the bullet. It hit no major arteries and that is something we can all be thankful for because if it did, she probably wouldn’t have survived. But as luck would have it, she may be able to walk out of here in a couple days. You’ve got yourself a fighter for a girlfriend Mr. Conway.” The doctor nodded his head. 

“I certainly do,” Mitch beamed. “Thank you so much doctor,” Mitch shook his hand vigorously.
  The small group grew enthusiastic and thanked the doctor repeatedly before asking when they could see Danielle.

“She’s just headed into recovery, give them a couple hours to get her settled and then if she’s up to it, I’ll let you go in and see her, but one at a time and for a few minutes only, she still needs her
rest and lots of it.”

“Any luck gentlemen?” Mike asked his team. They had been going over Ethan’s background with a fine tooth comb and the only female names they were able to pinpoint were that of a previous victim that he stalked back when he lived in New Hampshire, his deceased mother and grandmother. Other than that, no other name stood out. 

“Mike, besides his dead relatives, and the stalking victim, the only other female name is that of his alibi during the break in. A Miss Jul
ie Thompson sir, says here that she was able to vouch for Ethan’s whereabouts the day of the break in at Mitchell Conway’s place. But I don’t see a real connection with him, other than she was just doing her job.”

“Well we can count the stalking victim out
, I already spoke to her weeks ago and she was, how shall I say? More than a bit happy to hear about Ethan’s passing. So looks like we are going to concentrate on Miss Thompson gentlemen, let’s see what she’s been up to. Dig up all we can on her and then pay her a visit. ” It was the first time since the investigation into the strange deliveries started, that Mike began to see a light, even if it was faint, at the end of the tunnel.

Danielle sat wide awake as she watched the nurse settle her into the private room. She had been given a morphine drip and at the moment was feeling no pain. She was glad that she was conscious enough to control how much was given to her. Once the nurse finished, she told Danielle that there were some visitors who were quite anxious to see her and that a detective would be arriving shortly to question her as well. But that if it all got to be too much, the nurse told her, she would dismiss them all and tell them to come back another time.

“Nurse I feel alright,
considering,” Danielle shifted slowly in her bed.

“Yes I'm sure you do,” she said with a gentle smile. “But when that morphine wears off it’ll be another story Miss Martins,” she said with candor. “Now I’ll go get your guests.”

Mitch opened the door to her room slowly; he didn’t want to disturb her especially if she was sleeping. To his surprise Danielle had managed to give him a comforting smile.

“There’s my girl,” he said with jubilation. “How are you feeling baby?” He asked and bent down to kiss her.

“I'm feeling much better now that I’ve seen you,” she said and returned his kiss.

“I thought I’d lost you Danielle,” his eyes were tearing up and he fought hard not to pull her into his arms and hold her tight.

“Lose me? Never,” she said and winked at him.

“Listen baby, there’s a detective here and he needs to ask you some questions about who shot you, are you up for it?”

“I'm more than up for it Mitch, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind, the things she said to me I mean. I take it they haven’t caught her?” Danielle asked and pressed the button releasing the morphine.

“Not yet baby, but I'm not going anywhere until it’s time to take you home,” Mitch reassured her.

Danielle let out a smile. “How’s your mom? Is she okay?”

“Yes Danielle, everyone is f
ine. Now let’s concentrate on getting you better so I can get you out of here,” he said caressing her softly on the hand.

 
 While Danielle spoke to the detective, Mitch left the room and found a quiet corner to sit and think for a moment.  For him, seeing Danielle alive and responsive was the best thing he could have hoped for. Not only was she awake, but she was going to make a full recovery.  It was at that moment that he knew, he wanted her by his side for the rest of their lives. She was not just his best friend, but she was his lover and so much more.

He smiled when he thought of how she made his heart soar the very first time that he saw her. Danielle fought for him after Ethan had stabbed him. She was the one, the only one that he wanted to share hi
s life with and he hoped that she felt the same.

To whom it may concern,

I Julie Thompson am responsible for shooting and killing Danielle Martins.
  I also take responsibility for sending her the roses, personalized note card, photographs of Ethan Tillitson and various newspaper clippings. I wanted her to see that she was tormenting Ethan. He wanted nothing to do with her, and the more he told her this, the more she seemed to become relentless in her pursuit of him. We all want what we can’t have right? And Danielle Martins wanted Ethan. Even though he was smitten with me, she just wouldn’t let go. She had Ethan running around town trying to get away from her but it was to no avail, she found him no matter where he went.

I provided Eth
an with an alibi even though I did not see him that particular day at the office. I know this because I can remember each and every time that Ethan came into the office and the particular week in question, he wasn’t due in. But I doctored the paperwork and changed the log in dates on the computer to show that he had been in and it worked, you all bought it. Thanks to me, you let my Ethan go, and rightly so. He was innocent; I never understood why you wanted him in the first place.  After all, it was Danielle who lied and staged her house to make it look like someone had broken in. Ethan told me so that very night. He also told me that because she was a woman, the police would obviously take her word over his and that if I didn’t provide an alibi, he’d end up in jail.

I am disclosing all of this to you not because of guilt or remorse, as I feel neither. But because I want you to understand that someone had to make Danielle suffer, even writing her name on this paper causes me misery.
  I’d rather not mention her at all, but I know I have to, for Ethan’s sake. I truly believe that had she left well enough alone, Ethan and I would be together.  The night before Ethan died, he gave me something. We had just finished making love and he reached under his bed and pulled out a rusty old tool box, inside was the .22 caliper gun, yes, the same one that I used to kill Danielle. He also left detailed instructions and a couple of prepaid credit cards that he wanted me to use so that nothing could be traced back to me. He told me to listen to what he had to say and I did just that. I never realized the extent of Danielle’s stalking until he told me that if something were to happen to him that I was to make it my mission in life to see that Danielle Martins suffered a horrible death and once I found out that she had murdered Ethan, that’s exactly what I did.

Again, neither Ethan nor myself have anything to be ashamed of, guilty about or remorseful for. I'm just happy that Danielle is out of the picture and that I'm going to be w
ith Ethan forever. Bury me next to him please and know this, Ethan Tillitson belongs to me, and our hearts will always beat as one.

Julie re-read the letter, folded it neatly in half and gently placed it atop the fireplace mantle. Holding it in place was a
silver framed photograph of Ethan. After finishing her glass of wine, she fluffed the pillows on the sofa before sitting down. She then pulled out the .22 and with no tremble, placed the gun inside of her mouth and gently squeezed the trigger.

“Hey Mike, you are not going to believe what we dug up on Julie Thompson,” George St. Cloud, a detective assigned to the case said. Mike looked up from the pile of papers that he’d been going through on his desk.

“What?”

“It seems our girl Julie did a stint in the nut house back when she was a teenager.  It appears that her family had her committed after she had developed severe obsessive tendencies with just about every boy she dated. So she gets out when she’s eighteen, and starts living her life on her own. She moved around to a couple different states and for several years she does okay, but then she moves here, meets some guy, and they go on a couple dates. But just as quickly, he breaks it off with her.

So she starts off writing him love letters da
y after day, then when he didn’t respond, she took it to the next level. She starts driving by his house at all hours, peeking through his windows, banging on the door begging him to let her in.”

“And the guy filed a complaint I take it?” Mike asked.

“Well yes, but nothing ever became of it. It says here that shortly after, when the detectives went to follow up, he said that she seemed to stop all of her antics so he felt that there was no need to take things any further. So they wrote it off as complainant wishes to file no further charges.”

 
“And let me guess, that was probably around the time she set her sights on Ethan.”

“That seems about right boss, so what do you want to do?”

“You're joking right?” Mike looked at his colleague sarcastically.

George rai
sed his eyebrows as if to say no, he wasn’t kidding.

“What the hell are we waiting for? Let’s go pay her a visit,” he barked.

Just then, one of the officer’s bursts into his office. “Boss, dispatch just got a call of shots fired at the address of Julie Thompson.”

Mike threw up his hands in disbelief. “What the hell is going on tonight? What is it a full fucking moon?” He questioned as he and his partner rushed out of the station.

“And get a guy over to Mercy; I want someone posted at Danielle Martins door until we get this situation all sorted out. No one allowed in or out without proper identification, now go!”

Hours later, Danielle was still feeling fine and thanked the nurse for letting her visitors stay longer. While she visited with Shayla and Victoria
, a uniformed officer walked in and stopped at the nurses’ station.  Mitch immediately got on his feet; he was exhausted but had refused to leave the hospital. “When Danielle gets released, that’s when I’ll go home,” he told his parents when they suggested that he go home and get some rest. 

“What’s going on?” Mitch asked as he caught up to the officer and nurse. They were making a beeline towards Danielle’s door.

“I’ve got orders to guard this patient, that’s all I know.” The officer looked at Mitch undeviating.

“Why? Is she here? The woman who shot Danielle, is she here?”

“Sir I told you all I know; now no one is allowed in without proper Identification, do you have yours?”

Mitch had never wanted to assault a police officer but with the attitude this one
was giving him, the thought of clocking him right in the eye had crossed his mind.

When he entered her room, Danielle could sense that something was wrong. “What is it baby?” She asked him.

When he explained to her that an officer had been assigned to stand guard outside her room, she became distressed. Just the thought of getting shot again was enough to make her start to pull out her tubing.

Mitch tried to stop her. “Danielle, what are you doing? You can’t do that.”

Danielle winced in pain. “Mitch take me home, let’s go to your place, I don’t want to be here anymore,” she said the tears welling up inside of her. Thoughts of the woman returning to finish the job invaded her space. She wanted to get out, get out of there before it was too late.

“Danielle I
can’t take you home yet, the doctor hasn’t released you. You’ve just been shot for Christ’s sake.”

“I know I have and I don’t intend on getting shot again thank you very much, now take me home!” When she shouted, the pain intensified one hundred percent.
She didn’t care though, she wanted out. “I'm not safe here Mitch please!”  Tears of fear and angst fell down her cheeks as she began to panic. 

When a nurse came bounding in holding a needle, she grew even more panic stricken, she didn’t want to be knock
ed out, she wanted to leave. The last thing she remembered was the nurse holding her down and Mitch trying to comfort her.

By the time Mike and his partner rolled up on the scene, several officers were already there. It had appeared that Julie Thompson shot herself, they wouldn’t know for sure because an ambulance had taken her away. When the responding officers arrived at the apartment and broke down the door, they saw Julie sitting up, head resting lazily against the back of the couch. If it weren’t for all of the blood they would have thought that she was sleeping.  But when they checked her pulse and realized that she was still breathing, they called for an ambulance.

“You might want to read this boss.”
An officer held out the note that Julie had written.

After reading it Mike shook his head. “Please tell me that they didn’t bring her to Mercy?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

“There’s a uniform outside Miss Martins room boss. I doubt that this lady here will even survive,” his partner spoke of Julie Thompson. “And if by some miracle she does? She’ll spend the rest of her life a vegetable.”

“Yeah, a vegetable who won’t be able to go in front of a jury,” Mike said.

As the doctor checked her vital signs, Danielle scowled at him. He told her that although her heart rate and blood pressure were okay, she was in no condition to go home. Danielle then told the doctor that since she couldn’t go home, Mitch was to remain by her side. And if the hospital had any objections to that then they’d be better off releasing her. The doctor simply looked at the young couple, shook his head and left the room.

Shayla and Jason were standing outside smoking a cigarette when the sound of an ambulance burst through the qui
et evening.

“Geez, for a hospital out in the middle of nowhere it sure is getting a lot of action,” Shayla exclaimed. “I feel bad for whoever’s in there,” she said and wrapped her arms around her fiancé.

Mike wasn’t too far behind the ambulance when it arrived at the hospital, amongst all of the commotion; he was trying to find out whether or not Julie Thompson was going to survive. After quickly explaining to the emergency room staff that she’d shot and left Danielle for dead, they told him that there was no way Julie would be put on the same floor as Danielle.  “In fact,” a nurse told him. “I would be surprised if she even wakes up,” she said, sounding very unemotional.

“What do you mean she’s in the same hospital as Danielle?”  Mitch was questioning Mike.

After Mike explained to him what Julie was doing there, he let out an insensitive sigh.

“The bitch couldn’t even shoot herself right?” He chuckled agitatedly. “What floor is she on Mike, I’d like to pay her a visit,” he asked his friend.

“Now telling y
ou what floor she’s on is not a good idea Mitch and besides, the women probably won’t see the light of day. At best, she’ll be in a coma the rest of her life, half her face is gone.”

“I hope you’re not looking for sympathy from me Mike because you won’t ge
t any. That sick bitch tried to kill Danielle, if she winds up with half a fuckin face, so be it. She better hope that I don’t get hold of her, because if I do, I’ll snatch the rest of her ugly mug right off her, and I won’t think twice while I do it.”

“Ju
st calm down Mitch. Look, I just wanted to let you know that she was here and that Danielle is in no danger. Julie confessed to it all, the flowers, photographs, newspaper clippings, shooting her, you name it, she confessed.

And the worst part is, the wom
an says that Danielle was stalking Ethan and that she did what she had to do to stop her, yeah, Julie Thompson was one sick woman.”

“Yeah, well I don’t care what she was Mike, all I have to say about her is that she better die or stay comatose.”

“You know Mitch, from what I can gather, Ethan was a psychopath. And psychopaths will do anything to achieve their goal, and in his case, Danielle was his goal. But I’ll bet that before he came up with his kidnapping plan, he made sure that he planted the seed in Julie.

Julie was the perfect candidate to fall for a guy like Ethan, she carrying sociopathic tendencies herself. And the moment he figured out that she had a crush on him, he used that and manipulated her into thinking that Danielle was the culprit. That D
anielle was the one obsessed with him, and not the other way around.  You see, Ethan used Julie pretty much like an insurance policy. He figured that if he wasn’t able to have Danielle to himself and that if god forbid, something were to happen to him, Danielle too should suffer and since he figured he wouldn’t be around to do it, he made sure that Julie would be.”

“Sounds like a bunch of psychotic bullshit
 if you ask me Mike, a couple of crazy sick assholes is what it is,”  Mitch did not like the sound of what he was hearing, either people were sick and got help or they’d eventually get what they deserved. In both their cases, Ethan and Julie got what they deserved.

“Not everything is black or white Mitch. Look, all I'm saying is that we were dealing with t
wo sick individuals. Julie Thompson fell for Ethan’s lies, hook line and sinker. And had she not decided to kill herself, she’d be spending a big chunk of her life in either an institution or prison.”

Mitch ran a worried hand through his hair. “Well like I
said Mike, lucky for her she’s in a coma.”