She Never Came Home

Alice smiled weakly as she looked over at Danny. "Would you like to have sex with me right now?"

"What did you say about morning sex? Didn't you say you can't turn it on and off like a light switch?"

"The offer is on the table," Alice said.

"And just like that. You offer me sex after refusing me for almost a year?"

"I never denied you sex. Not once in our marriage."

"If you consider sex with you as the same thing as sex with a wet washcloth, then no, you never have denied me."

"That was uncalled for," Alice said.

"Really? Think about it. You won't let me watch you getting dressed, and if the time came for us to have sex, you undress in the dark. You have never touched my dick. Not once. How many times have I begged you to wear some thigh high stockings, panties and heels for me in our apartment? Uncalled for? I don't think so.

"Alice, do you listen to your own words? You're standing in front of me telling me I can't have a relationship with a woman, while you're fucking your boyfriend, and offer me sex with you as a bribe?" Danny pointed a finger at Alice. "Are you upset with me because I react to you like any normal man would?"

"It's not that. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm staying with my sister right now."

"You haven't moved in with your lover yet?"

"No."

"Do you want to get back together?" Danny asked.

"I don't know. God, I miss you so much. I worry about you when I watch the news and there's a fire."

"But not enough to give up your boyfriend and his expensive gifts?"

"Give me some time, Danny. I don't have the same feeling toward him as I do you. I'm not so sure I love him."

"And while you're thinking out your options, and having sex with this guy, I'm supposed to leave Sally alone. Is that what you came here to tell me?"

Alice stood and nodded at Danny. "Yes."

As Alice walked past him on her way back to the door, Danny gathered her hand into his. "In all the years since we met, did you ever even once want to see me looking at you with a hard on with the lights turned up?"

Alice wiggled her hand out of his. "Why did you ask me that?"

"It's nothing. Really it isn't. I guess you're embarrassed or scared by the thought of me looking at you with lust in my eyes."

Danny had a hard time wrapping his mind around the reason Alice had come over. She had made it perfectly clear that she wanted out weeks ago. She was the one that held the key to their marriage. Alice held the key to his heart, too, but she didn't seem to want to turn it.

The door slowly closed.

*********Chapter Six********

Sally worked the swing shift at the comm center, and on this particular day, she was outside walking to a table to eat her lunch. Sally didn't see the woman with the long hair approach with the sun to her back.

"Listen, you psycho bitch!" Alice said as she grabbed Sally's shoulder.

"Who in the hell are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am."

"You're Danny's wife aren't you?"

"That's right. And you stay way from him. Do you get that, you little fuckin' whore?"

Sally outweighed Alice by at least thirty pounds, but Alice was several inches taller, and Sally cowered when Alice's fist rose.

"You're going to divorce him! Why shouldn't I be with him?

"He's my husband!"

"And you're fucking another guy at the same time. What the fuck is that about?"

Alice reached out and grabbed Sally's shirt by the collar. "If you don't leave him alone, I'll make sure that no man on this planet will put his cock into that pussy of yours!"

Sally broke Alice's grip. "You're nuts! It's a wonder your marriage lasted as long as it did. You can't have it both ways. How can you be fucking around on Danny, and want to be married to him at the same time? Your husband is fantastic in bed. I love to see him play with his balls and stroke his cock for me."

Alice slapped Sally hard enough to knock her to the ground.

"You leave Danny alone! You got that?"

*********

Sally had phoned Danny and she was desperate to meet him. Sally damn near flew out of her seat at a local Starbucks when Danny walked inside.

"What's going on?" Danny asked.

"I wasn't going to say anything, but the more I thought about it—Alice threatened me a couple of days ago."

"She did what?"

"Alice told me to leave you alone. I'm not going to do that."

"I'll talk to her. If she threatens you again, file a police report. That was unacceptable even for her. Are you okay?"

"I got a few bruises when she pushed me down, but other than that, I'm fine."

"Damn it. Alice what has gotten into you?" Danny asked.

"You still care about her don't you?"

"She's still my wife until the ink dries on the divorce papers. She's a good person."

"With a mean streak," Sally said.

Danny shook his head and let out a sigh.

"You seem tense today," Sally said.

"I was thinking about something."

"You wanna let me in on it?"

"It's stupid."

"Try me," Sally said.

Danny shrugged. "If you were married, would you let your husband watch you get dressed?"

"You were thinking about that?"

"It's a conversation Alice and I had a few nights after she got caught with her lover."

"I take it she won't?"

"Stupid, isn't it? Why would I still be thinking about that conversation weeks ago?" Danny let out another sigh. "We argue over the strangest shit."

Sally drew her long fingernails across the back of Danny's hand. "You can watch me get dressed anytime you want."

"No exceptions? From shower to fully clothed and then naked again?"

Sally looped her arms though his. "No exceptions. Any way you'd like it."

"And undress you in the middle of your living room to the point the only thing you'll have on would be your earrings?"

"You can take those off as well." Sally smiled.

"Alice would be in orbit by now if I'd asked her that."

Sally leaned over and whispered in his ear, "How about you stop by tonight, and you can watch all you want. Like I said, deep down inside we all like to watch."

*********Chapter Seven*******

Another week went by as Danny continued to try and get his life in order. He didn't usually keep his cell constantly in his hand, so the anonymous text message was already days old before he saw it.

The text said someone came into Sally's apartment, and there had been a struggle with a long-haired woman. It didn't' take but a few seconds to figure out the woman with the long hair had to be Alice, especially after the showdown between the two at the comm center. Could the message have come from Sally's watcher? The text didn't come from Sally's number. Whomever it was, someone must have been watching Sally when Alice confronted her. Was the watcher protecting Sally?

Danny rushed over to Sally's apartment, and once inside it was clear that a struggle had occurred. There were chairs upturned and broken lamps scattered across the floor. Danny ran to the bedroom and searched the end stand for the .22 revolver Sally had shown him. He dumped the contents of the drawer onto the bed. There among the clutter was the gun. He flipped the cylinder open. There were no rounds shot. "That's good." He flipped it closed and stuffed the gun under his belt.

"Alice, what did you do to Sally?"

He looked about the apartment. "Think man. What would she do with Sally?"

Alice certainly would not have been able to carry Sally out of the building. And as far as Danny knew, Alice didn't own a gun or even knew how to use one, and the only gun that he knew had been was in the apartment was now in his hands.

Sally, on the other hand, would never had allowed Alice to force her to leave the building. She'd have made a scene and gotten someone's attention. Danny thought the problem out. Alice had to have knocked Sally out, and then dragged her to an elevator. The only place Alice could force Sally to go would be the basement. Yet, that wouldn't work either. There were too many people working there. Danny went to the elevators, and as he was about to press the button for the basement he noticed a button for the subbasement. He pressed it instead.

When the doors opened his nose was greeted with the aroma of a rainy garden. A musty smell of stagnant water surrounded him. The room vibrated with the busy sounds of motors turning pumps, and mixed in was the constant buzz from power transformers. A few dim incandescent bulbs dangled from the ceiling on spindly wires. The lights swung to and fro in the breeze generated by the fans of the motors. Danny followed a labyrinth of small walkways between pumps and electrical cabinets.

Over the din of the machines he thought he could hear the sound of voices. Danny moved closer and as he did, the voices became stronger. He turned a corner and took a peek. There in a small electrical room was Sally. Danny watched in disbelief as Sally stood in front of Alice. There were chains around Alice's ankles, and another short length of chain let to a pipe on the wall. Her hands were tied behind her back. She had been stripped down to her panties. Hunks of Alice's once long hair lay on the concrete floor. Dried blood coated Alice's face. Large hunks of hair had been pulled from the side of her head.

"What the hell is going on?" Danny said as he stepped out from the corner

"Danny, for God's sake help me!" Alice cried.

"Shut up you slut bitch!" Sally said.

Sally snatched a pair of scissors from atop an electrical box. She began to wave them around, and then placed an open blade against Alice's throat.

"Don't do that. Put those down! Sally, what the hell are you doing? Why is Alice chained? What have you done to Alice?"

"That's not Sally!" Alice's eyes were the size of soccer balls.

"Of course it's Sally," Danny said.

"NO IT'S NOT!"

"Sally? Sally? What's going on?" Danny asked.

"Ask her who she is?"

Danny looked at the dried blood on Alice's body, and the piles of hair that had been hacked off and now lay on the cold concrete floor. Almost all of Alice's hair had been cut from her head. Alice was right; Sally wouldn't have hurt anyone.

"Who are you?" Danny asked.

"You know who I am. I'm doing this for you, honey," Sally said.

"Sally wouldn't hurt Alice. Sally wouldn't hurt anyone. I ask again, who are you?"

"Samantha."

"Samantha, where is Sally?"

"She's not here. I'm in control now. She didn't want to do what I knew she has to do."

"What have you done to Alice?"

"You won't stop loving her. So I'll make it so you can't even look at her when I'm done."

Alice pulled with all her might against her bindings but they didn't budge. She shook the chains until they rattled in a desperate attempt to free herself. She took up all the slack, and tried to place as much distance as she could between herself and Samantha, or Sally, whichever the other woman was...

"Danny help me! She's crazy!"

"You've got to let Alice go," Danny said.

The scissors sliced through the air. "I'll kill her, then you'll have to love me."

"Danny! NO!"

Alice screamed.

Samantha's eyes glowed red, and she grinned as she arched her arm back ready to strike Alice. Danny pulled the gun from his pants, and leveled it at her.

"For the love of God, don't! Don't make me do this!"

Samantha lunged.

Danny fired.

His first shot, fired with angry intent, ripped into her body. Danny watched, mesmerized as the bullet tore through the fabric of Sally's shirt. Her face twisted in both pain and surprise.

Danny pulled the trigger over and over, even as Samantha began to fall. Sound waves crashed into themselves as lightning and thunder spewed from the smoking barrel.

Danny hands shook as he continued to pull the trigger on the now empty gun. He let the gun slip from his hand, and he went over to Alice. He untied her hands and removed his shirt to cover her.

She put her arms around him and cried. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Was all she could say.

The sound of the gunshots had alerted the workers on the floor above, and within minutes the police were there. A worker took a bolt cutter and cut the chains just before the medical team loaded both Sally and Alice onto stretchers.

Danny was shocked by the amount of blood on the floor. "Did you shoot her?" one of the cops asked.

"Yeah. She was going to kill Alice. I shot Sally. I had no choice."

He leaned upon a large gray electrical box and palmed his eyes. "My God. What did I do? I killed Sally."

*********

An untouched paper cup of piss warm coffee as well as a vending machine sandwich wedge sat on a table. Danny had been in the interrogation room for what seemed like weeks. Finally an older man with a three-day-old beard opened the door.

"I'm Matthew Meadowwind. I'm the detective assigned to this case."

"How's Alice?"

"Damn lucky to be alive. Alice is dehydrated and hungry. She'd been chained up for three days with nothing but a few sips of water. Cut to hell and back, too. She told the docs that this other woman, what was her name?"

"Sally."

Oh yeah, I see, that's right. Sally. She said Sally called her to her apartment. Alice said she came over because you were supposed to be there. You and Sally were lovers?"

"We had sex. How is Alice?"

"I see. Alice. Um right. She received quite a number of cuts to her head. Doc told me some were quite deep, a few down to the bone. There are some cigarette burns on her breasts as well."

"Jesus."

"Alice is your wife right?"

"Yeah. I told you that."

"I see. I understand that you two are having marriage problems. Correct?"

"We're working on some issues."

"I see. I take that as a yes."

"What marriage doesn't have an issue or two?" Danny asked.

"I'm only thinking out loud here, but after nearly forty-five years with the NYPD I've seen a lot of shit."

"So what are you saying?"

Detective Meadowwind let out a long slow breath as he tapped a pencil on the table. He rolled his rotund body deeper into the chair. "Let's suppose that you and Sally were having this fling, and you wanted your wife out of the picture. You talk Sally into kidnapping her, and just like that you show up after Sally stabs your wife to death with a pair of scissors. I'd bet my pension I'd be able to trace those scissors back to your apartment. Your marriage problems would be gone with all the dirty work done by Sally. You shoot her and you'd have the perfect double murder. Both problems are gone and you end up the grieving husband. Boohoo. Boohoo."

"Jesus, you are so wrong. Don't you think after forty-five years you'd better retire? I had nothing to do with this. Besides, I shot Sally before she killed Alice."

The pencil tapping continued. "Do you believe in reincarnation?" Meadowwind asked.

"What the hell does that have to do with me?" Danny sat with his arms crossed.

"I don't believe in that shit either. But if I did, in a galaxy far, far away, in another life you had to be a Stormtrooper."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You fired six shots. Two completely missed her. One grazed her right side, another hit her thigh, and still another went through her hand. She's got a bullet lodged in shoulder."

"I didn't kill her? She's going to live?"

"Sally is in surgery as we speak. If you're going to shoot someone, bring the right sized gun and not a pea shooter. And for God's sake spend some time at a gun range and do some target practice using it."

"Then you don't believe I conspired with Sally to kill my wife?"

"Perhaps, could be, but naw, not this time. But like I said, I've seen some shit."

********Chapter Eight*******

A cold drizzle fell from the sky as Danny walked along the sidewalk. His hands were buried deep in his pant pockets as he slowly made his way to Alice's sister's home. In his mind he had been rehearsing what he was going to say. He thought over each word making sure it was the right one to say at the correct time. He turned in front of a brownstone house and slowly climbed the steps. The wrought iron railing was rusty and cold, exactly the way he figured his sister in law would be.

He knocked on the door, and when it opened Alice's sister Candice stood in the doorway.

"Well, well, well. Don't you have a set of balls to come around here," Candice said.

"I'd like to speak to Alice."

"And what makes you think she's here?"

"This is important. I need to talk to her. Candice, please."

Candice turned and looked over her shoulder. "Alice that useless husband of yours is here."

"I don't know why you don't like me, I wasn't the one that got caught having the affair."

Candice didn't say a word back at Danny.

Danny could see the lights come on from down a long dark hallway like an airport lighting up a runway at night. Seconds later Alice stood beside her sister.

"What do you want?"

"I'd like to talk to you. In private." He gave Candice an icy stare.

"About what?"

"Me and you."

"In the kitchen?" Alice asked.

"That would be fine."

"It's okay, Candice," Alice said as she pushed the door open.

Danny followed Alice into the kitchen. Not much had changed since the last time he was there. A shelf of wine bottles still circled the perimeter of the kitchen, and wooden spoons still hung above the stove. Danny had good memories of this home. In better times, he'd come here and make out with Alice while her parents slept in their beds. Now, like the aroma of her mother's cooking, all the good memories were fading away.

There was a small wooden table in the center of the kitchen. Alice sat at one end, Danny at the other.

"All right. What do you want to talk about?" Alice asked.

Danny reached over and slipped the ball cap from Alice's head. Big patches of her once long hair were gone, and in their place were cuts and lacerations. The metal staples reflected the kitchen ceiling light. What hair she had left after Sally's attack had been cut back at the hospital leaving her with nothing more than half an inch of hair. The cuts on her scalp were red and inflamed. Rows of stitches made her head appear like a well-worn baseball. Her face near her forehead and down her right cheek had mottled blue and green bruises. Alice snatched her cap from Danny's fingers and gently slipped it back on.

"Do they hurt?"

"Yes, especially at night. Why are you here?" Alice asked.

Even with all the rehearsing he'd done in head, his thoughts came out as a jumble of words.

"Sally meant nothing to me. I didn't love her. I never did. She supplied me with sex and that's all. I didn't know she was sick in the mind. How could I possibly have known that? I've done some incredibly stupid shit and I'm sorry."

"Why her?"

Danny shrugged. "'Cause she was there. I didn't go looking. Sally said she wanted me, and she was there."

They sat and looked at each other. Danny noticed a tear or two in Alice's eye.

"I didn't go looking either. Like I told you, it simply happened. You didn't believe me when I tried to explain it," Alice said.

"Listen," Danny began, "the night of the elevator incident. I was so mad at you. How could you do that to me? Up until that night, I thought our marriage was okay."

"It wasn't."

"What was wrong with it?" He thought for a few seconds and then said, "I'll agree there were some bumps in it, but nothing we couldn't have worked out."

"For one thing, you can't come home at seven in the morning, slap me on my ass and expect my pussy to be wet and eager for you in two minutes. It doesn't work that way for me."

"You never said anything to me about it."

"I shouldn't have had to!" Alice's fist came down on the table so hard it knocked over the saltshaker. "You think with your dick when it comes to love. I don't have an issue with morning sex, but not the way you want it. There's a real live person inside me that feels so hurt when you do that. Don't you get it? Danny, sex and love go together. I need the love before we have sex. Do you have any idea the times I wanted you to romance me out of my clothing? To make it special to me —for me."