Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 01 - Sugar And Spice and Not So Nice (12 page)

I kneed him in the groin. He loosened his grip just enough for me to push him away. Unfortunately, my costume was not built for running. Reiss grabbed me and threw me to the ground. Bits of broken glass burned as they dug into my skin. He kicked me in the stomach.

“You are proving to be more trouble than you are worth,” said Reiss as he circled me. “I don’t know how you found out about Rachel, or that phone, but you know way too much.” He rammed his foot into my stomach again. “You are a pain. At least you’ll bother me no more.”

I heard the crackling of plastic. Reiss unrolled a bunch of plastic as he loomed over me. Before I knew it, he wrapped the plastic tightly around my head, covering my mouth and nose.

I flailed my arms frantically to get him off of me. My lungs burned for air.

“With the madness of the parade, no one will notice you for a long time. They may even think it was a mugging gone bad,” bragged Reiss. “Either way, I’ll be long gone by the time anyone finds your body.”

My world began to go black. My mind refused to focus as lack of oxygen got to me. A loud clang echoed in the alley. Reiss dropped me.

“What the…” he began.

I heard him gasp as something hard rammed into him, causing him to double over. He moved around as some invisible force chased him.

Despite being released, I was unable to free myself from the suffocating plastic. I lay sprawled on the ground, waiting the inevitable. Hands grasped me. They tore at the plastic, ripping it from my mouth.

I sucked in air.

“Mel! Mel!” Both Greg and Jackie bent over me, helping me up. I answered them by breathing deeply.

“How’d you find me?” I asked them.

“That’s a long story,” said Jackie. “Rachel whispered something about you being in trouble. When you didn’t return, I called Detective Shorts.”

I glanced over and saw Detective Shorts cuffing Reiss. I felt a phone being shoved into my hand. Looking up, I saw Rachel.

“It’s all on here,” she said. “Make sure that Shorts guy gets it.”

“Miss Summers,” said Detective Shorts as he walked up to me, “are you all right? Do you need an ambulance?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said.

Detective Shorts must have seen the pain in my face and waved a paramedic over. “Mr. Reiss has refused to say anything. Can you tell me what happened?”

I handed Detective Shorts the phone. He took it. “Just press play,” I said.

Detective Shorts brought up the video that Rachel had recorded. It had everything: Reiss’ confession to stalking me, his intention to kill me, and his confession to murdering Rachel. “This should put him away for a long time. Good thinking; recording everything.”

“Mel, you play dangerously.”

I turned and saw Tiny.

“We ran into him in our effort to find you,” said Greg.

After the paramedic examined me and said I would be fine, my friends led me away. We walked past the parked patrol cars. Everyone stared at the commotion. I guess a bunch of cop cars with flashing lights is more interesting than any parade.

“You bitch,” Reiss spat at me. “This isn’t over. I’ll come for you. You can be sure of that.”

Usually, I am an easy going person, but that guy really got under my skin. I had had enough of his garbage. I marched up to him when no one was looking. Using the combined energy of my anger and strength, I seized Reiss by the back of the neck and bashed his face three times into the hood of the car.

“This is for Rachel,” I said with each bang. “This is for trying to kill me! And this is for being a complete scumbag!”

I stalked off, pleased with my work.

“I think I’m a bad influence on you,” said Rachel. She smacked Reiss in the back of the head.

“Well, you know what they say…” I began. “Sugar and spice—”

“—and not so nice,” finished Rachel.

We high fived each other. At that point I didn’t care if people thought I was crazy as I slapped thin air.

“Did you see that?” yelled Reiss, “That bitch broke—”

“Did what?” demanded Detective Shorts. “This?” He bashed Reiss’ face into the hood of the car. “You know,” he said, getting close to Reiss’ face, “you’re going away for a long time with this confession. You know what they do to cops in prison? Especially dirty cops?” Shorts shoved Reiss toward a uniformed officer. “Get this trash out of here.”

After I finished giving my statement to the cops, Detective Shorts released my friends and me. In the car, I got the entire story of how they found me.

“Like I said,” said Jackie, “Rachel whispered to me that you were in trouble. Greg and I followed her. That’s when we met Tiny.”

“They told me you were in trouble,” he said, “so, of course I came along.”

“That noise in the alley told us where you were,” added Greg. “Tiny ripped Reiss right off of you after he seemed to take a hit from some unseen force.”

“Thanks guys. Especially you, Rachel,” I said.

“I have my moments,” said Rachel.

“And we found that guy that broke into your apartment,” said Tiny. “Reiss paid him to rough you up a bit and paid someone else to take Greg’s car.”

“Did you take them to the police?” I asked.

“I’m sure the cops will find them at some point,” replied Tiny. “Right now, Sombrero and the boys took them on a nice long ride on a very lonely highway.”

When I got home that night, I fell straight into bed, and was out cold.

Chapter 12

Several days passed after my near death incident. Something I’d rather not repeat. I hadn’t seen Rachel in all that time. I hoped she had finally moved on.

“You got something from the college,” said Jackie handing me a letter.

I ripped it opened, hoping it wasn’t a bill, or equally, bad news. Instead, it was a check and a letter. The letter was short and to the point. It stated that since Professor Vincent was involved in illicit activities, and was arrested, all classes that he taught were cancelled for the semester. The check was a refund for taking his course. Add to that the fact that everyone who had registered for his class would receive full credit for it anyway.

I guess the university wished to avoid a lawsuit. Especially since a flourish of girls came forward and filed harassment charges.

“Wow, a refund from the university. That rarely happens.”

I turned around and there stood Rachel. “Rachel,” I said, “I thought you’d have moved on by now.”

“Close,” said Rachel. “I wanted to give you this.” She placed a necklace in my palm. It was a silver dolphin. “I want you to have it,” she continued. “I don’t need it anymore. It’s a thank you present.”

“Rachel, I can’t.”

“Take it. You were the first to listen to me. The first to truly care about catching the guy that killed me.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

“Dolphins always were my favorite animal.”

“So I guess this is good-bye.”

“Yeah, it’s time I moved on. Call it Heaven or crossing over if you like, but I know where I belong now, and it’s time I go where we all do when we die. My grandmother is waiting for me.”

“See you around,” I said.

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll meet again,” said Rachel. “Just don’t follow me anytime soon.”

I chuckled. “You can count on that. Good-bye, Rachel.”

She vanished.

“Hey, Mel, what’s up?” asked Jackie, reentering the room.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Where’s Rachel?”

“She left,” I replied.

What else could I say? The time had come for her to move forward. The same for me. Life goes on.

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