and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) (5 page)

“Oh, Gloria,” she
grimaced, “you have to call the cops!”

“That’s not all, get a
gander at this!”  Gloria slid off the bed and pulled her top up over her head,
exposing a mass of bruising on her upper body and back.  “And no, I’m not
calling the cops, Martina.  He’s rich.  He has lawyers that’ll have him back
out on the street before you can say Jack Robinson.  Then he’ll come for me
again.  Or he’ll send someone else to do the job.”

“What?  Try to kill
you?”

“Exactly!”  She put on
a robe and went to the kitchen.  There she took two beers from the fridge and
handed one to Martina on her way into the living room.  “His previous wife was
fished from the Mississippi River, on the Illinois side, one month after she
divorced him.  She had a bullet hole in her head.  I didn’t find that out until
after we were married.  By that time it was too late.  He started with the
threats nearly on day one.”

“Oh…my…gosh, Gloria! 
What will you ever do?”  Martina was panicked now and began pacing back and
forth in front of her.

“There’s nothing I can
do!”  Her mouth feeling suddenly dry, she gulped some of the beer.  “I have
this feeling I’m dead either way now, cops or no cops.”

“There must be
something we can do?”  Marti’s mind was a whirl of possibilities.  No way was
she going to sit idly by and let this animal kill her best friend in cold
blood.  Just the thought of such a thing happening to Gloria nauseated her.

“I don’t want you
getting involved, Martina.”

“Did anyone ever get
charged with the killing of the first wife?” Martina asked.

“No.  Her murder was
never solved.”

“What’s his name?”

“Raymond  Koffee. 
Koffee with a K.  Raym, he likes people to call him.”

“Was he ever questioned
about the murder?”

“I don’t know.  This
all happened before I came to St. Louis,” Gloria said and pulled her legs up on
the couch.  “He did say, once, that he was out of the country at the time. 
Bahamas, I think he said.”

“You said he’s rich. 
How did he make his money?”

“It’s old money.  His
family is wealthy.  I think they made their money in real estate.  There was a
large ranch somewhere north of town, once owned by a distant grandfather.  But,
of course, that’s nearly all part of the city now.”

“Oh, my!”  Marti got up
from her chair and returned her unopened beer to the fridge.  She then put a
pot of water on the range for tea.  “Do you have any pictures of him?”

“None!  After the
divorce I burned every single one I had… even the wedding pictures.”  Gloria
ran quivering fingers lightly over her battered face.  “I didn’t want anything
left of him in my life.”

Marti hesitated… then
decided to ask anyway.  “Did you get a fair settlement in the divorce?”

“Are you kidding?  As
it turned out, he didn’t own anything.  The house we lived in and even the cars
we drove were all in his father’s name.”

“Didn’t you think that
was a little strange?” Marti said through the opening from the kitchen.

“I was blown away by
it.  And so was the court.  But I didn’t care.  I just wanted out.”  Tears then
began flowing down Gloria’s cheeks.  She used her bulky white robe to dab them
away.  “I should have known, though, the way he insisted I pay the household
expenses from my income.”

“Did he make you keep
your job… or was that your idea?”

“Oh, hell, yes!  That
was understood before we tied the knot.  He didn’t want another wife lounging
around the house all day, as his first had done.”

Martina came to Gloria
with a steaming hot cup of tea, then took a cup to the easy chair and sat it on
the adjacent table.  “Would you care for a little brandy in yours, Gloria?” 
She knew Gloria preferred hers that way and returned to the kitchen for the
bottle.

“Yes, thank you,”
Gloria responded, wondering what she would be doing now without Martina here to
comfort her.  “You’re an angel!”

“You’d do the same for
me,” Marti said, but her mind was on Raym Koffee.  Where could she find a
picture of him?  She thought that important to know.  Should he come around
again, she then would know to be on her guard.  In fact, if he were here now,
she knew exactly what she would to do to him.  The sonofabitch!

“Were you here in the
apartment when he beat you?” Marti asked. 

“In his car.”  Gloria’s
eyes watered again as the horror of it all flashed through her mind again.  “He
dumped me out at the curb when finished with me.  Like some bag of garbage.”

“Oh, Gloria!”  Marti
went to her.  “The cheap bastard!  He carries on an affair with you in his
car?”

“Not usually,” Gloria
said, amused at Martina’s animated tirade.  “He has a small studio apartment
across town for that.”  She sniffled and fumbled with the robe.  “Today was
different.  He got angry when I told him this was the last time.  He beat me as
he drove.  And then, at some place under a bridge, he pulled me out of the car
and into some bushes.  That’s where he ripped off my clothes and raped me.  Then
afterward, he beat and kicked me some more.”

“Oh my God!  This has
to be reported!”  Martina began pacing the floor again.

“You see!” Gloria
shouted out.  “That’s why I didn’t want you to know, Martina.  Apparently you
weren’t listening.  This guy could kill me, or have me killed.  If you knew him
like I do, you would know it’s true.  There’s nothing I can do.”

“At least let me get
you to a hospital.  You should be checked out for internal injuries.”

“Don’t forget, I’m a
nurse too.  I’d know if I needed medical attention.”

And so it went for
another hour.  In that time Gloria got sufficiently drunk on the brandy for
sleep.  Marti helped her to bed, then sat with her until she was resting
peacefully.  Sleep, however, didn’t come as readily for Martina.  She laid
awake for hours mauling over all the information Gloria had given her.  She
desperately wanted to do something to help her friend, but outside of going to
the cops, she was at a loss as to exactly what.  But she wasn’t about to give
up on account of that, regardless of the extremes to which she needed to go. 
Perhaps she ought to check into buying a gun.  God knows she had plenty of
experience in using them.  Her father had seen to that with the numerous times
he had taken her hunting or just plinking tin cans at her grandfather’s farm,
using his arsenal of weapons of near every kind. 

However, a gun was only
part of the equation.  One could prove to be useful in protecting her friend,
but what she needed was a plan to rid this animal from Gloria’s life forever…
short of killing him, if at all possible.  The thought of taking a human life
was contrary to everything Marti believed in.  After all, she had decided to
become a nurse from the desire to prolong life, not the other way around.  But then,
ridding Gloria of this potentially deadly threat could prove lifesaving as
well… it could save Gloria’s life.

CHAPTER
NINE

At eight in the
morning, after checking in on Gloria and seeing she was resting peacefully,
Marti worked out for an hour before showering and starting breakfast.  A half
hour later, the smell of bacon frying brought Gloria to the kitchen, where she
poured herself a cup of coffee.

“I’d like to say you
look greatly improved this morning, but that would be an overstatement.”  Marti
came up to check the swelling around Gloria’s eyes and then the road maps on
the eyes themselves.

“Am I going to live?” 
Gloria took her coffee to the table and fought the pain to sit.

“Have you noticed any
blood loss?”

“A little discoloration
in the urine…but nothing to be overly concerned about.”

“Any surface clotting
on the contusions?”

“A little,” Gloria
said.  “I’ll be okay, Martina.  I’ve been through this a time or two.  I know
what to expect.”

“You mean he’s beaten
you like this before?”  Marti was back to being angry all over again.

“More times than I care
to count.  I should have known better than to try to be rid of him.  I’m not
sure what I was thinking, but it was a mistake.”

“Don’t tell me you’re
thinking of going back with him again?”

“Martina, I don’t want
to get into this again.”  Gloria groaned from the pain.  “Just let it drop,
okay.  If you want to do something, get me some aspirin.  I’m out.”

“Oh, Gloria, you
shouldn’t be taking aspirin.  One thing you don’t need is thinner blood right
now, when we don’t know for sure how extensive the internal injuries are.”

“You’re a mean, mean
nurse, Martina.”

“Can you eat eggs and
bacon or should I make you some oatmeal?”

“I didn’t get out of
bed for oatmeal.”

“Thata girl!” Marti
cheered.  “I’ll tell you what.  Eat a good breakfast… then I’ll give you some
aspirin, okay?”

“Now you’re talking. 
Bring it on.”

After Marti had washed
up the breakfast dishes, she asked Gloria to lock the door behind her.  She was
stepping out to do some shopping.  This was understandable to Gloria, seeing as
how Martina had a dinner engagement, which may ultimately develop into the
biggest night of her female life.  In that case, one always wanted to have new
undergarments.

But that wasn’t the
reason Marti was going out at all.  She was driving to the main library with
hopes of discovering more about the Koffee clan.  Some history may be helpful,
but most importantly, she was looking for a recent photo of Raymond, or Raym as
he liked to be called.  If they were the prominent citizens Gloria said they
were, there must be something available.  She was just at the library the
previous Saturday and checked out three books on plastic surgery.  She had
wanted to read up on the subject so she wouldn’t appear to be a complete idiot
when assisting in the OR on one of those procedures for the first time.

Upon arriving, Marti
went right to the help desk, as she had done on her previous visit.  When she
got the attention of an elderly lady seated there, she made her needs clear.

“I’m looking for
anything I can find on the family, Koffee.  I understand they played a
prominent role in the history of St. Louis.”

“Oh, indeed they have.”
The nearly white haired woman came to her feet spryly.  “St. Louis, as well as
the State of Missouri.  What is it you want to know?”

“Well, I’m not sure.  I
understand there was a large ranch that was eventually consumed by the city…”

“You’re standing on
part of it, right now.  The land this library sits on was donated by the Koffee
family back in 1875.  It was part of the original eighteen thousand acre
spread.  The original ranch was established by August Koffee in the 1840s.  He
died of cholera during an epidemic in the late 1860s.  His son Aaron then took
charge and it was because of him St. Louis was allowed to grow to the north, in
respect to the enormous amount of land he owned.

“We have several books
that contain passages of …” The elderly woman started to go through her files
of index cards.

“Actually, I was
thinking more recent.  Who of the family remains in the city?”

“There are hundreds of
Koffees residing in St. Louis and the surrounding area.  But I’m afraid only
two of direct linage, Adolf and his son James.”

Disappointed, Marti
said, “The one…  Isn’t there one named Raymond?”

“Raym?”  The old
woman’s eyes became wide.  “Why on earth would anyone want to know anything
about Raym?”

“Sounds like you know a
lot about him?”

“I ought to… he was
married to my granddaughter.”

With that, Marti put a
hand over her mouth and glared at the old woman.  It must have been her
granddaughter that was murdered, possibly by Raym.  “Actually, I was just
trying to locate a picture of him.”

“I would like to see
one of those, too — of him on death row.”

“Was it your
granddaughter that was killed…?”

“Yes, and he did it. 
Everybody around here knows that.”  The old woman looked around to see who was
listening, if anybody.

“But I thought he was
out of the country at the time?”

“Phooey!” she near spit
the word out.  “I don’t believe that for a second.  Just because the family
plane went to the Bahamas for a holiday doesn’t necessarily mean he was on it. 
And of course they would lie for him.”  The lean old woman, eighty if she was a
day, drew back and folded her arms under her breasts as if what she’d said was
absolute fact.

Marti focused in on her
name tag.  “Gwyn Raizel,” it said.  Then, below that in smaller letters:
‘VOLENTEER.’ 

“What’s your interest
in Raym, anyway?”  Gwyn eyed Marti suspiciously.