Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (10 page)

He pulled out a 30 pack of my favorite beer from the trunk and handed it to me. I called him a saint, and he said more of a devil. We went into the house.

One of the giants recognized Buck and told him he was an admirer of Buck’s classic cars that he had seen at local car shows. Buck went to various car shows to display his restored 1961 T-Bird and had won numerous awards. Buck was surprised to have to look up at the giants, but they started to get along great.

We finally found out the giants’ names, Tim and Deacon. Deacon’s real name was Francis, “But don’t call me by that name.” he said. “I was named after Francis Albert Sinatra, a favorite of my Italian mother.”

We all talked for a while, then Penny and I gathered the dishes and went into the kitchen to wash them.

It was almost 8 P.M., and I asked Penny, “Would you be upset if I had a beer?”

She said, “I would be if you don’t offer me one.” OK, now I was really in love. I knew Buck didn’t drink anymore and the cops couldn’t so we had the 30 all to ourselves. We finished the dishes and stood in the living room making sure everybody was comfortable.

Penny and I excused ourselves, grabbed a couple more beers and went back out to the porch where we talked until the sun went down. Buck and the cops were talking cars, and Buck was relating some of his wild day’s adventures with the police. The giants were amused by his stories.

I decided to go back in the house as we could be targets on the porch from someone out in the dark. She locked the porch door and we went into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Penny snuggled under my arm, and we just sat there in the quiet.

*

Chapter Eight

Buck came over, slid down on an armchair and gave us his walrus smile.

“I got a couple of DVDs like you requested Jimmy. A new James Bond movie and that cute robot movie.”

“Buck is a softy for animated robot movies,” I said to Penny.

“Well, Wall-E is my favorite, too, I can watch it again.” She excused herself to go make some popcorn.

Buck and I talked about the day’s events and plotted for the night’s possibilities. Buck said he would camp out on the couch. The giants from behind us said they would take turns napping on a recliner.

“Where you gonna sleep, Jimmy?” Buck grinned.

“For sure not on the couch with you.” I laughed.

Penny came back in with a big bowl of popcorn and five plastic bags of popcorn. She handed me another beer and set one down for herself on an end table. Yep, definitely love.

She asked Deacon, “Would you take two of the popcorn bags out to the officers in the car?” He did gladly, then she gave one to Buck and Tim. I thought what a great woman this person was. She thought of others and not just herself.

Penny took the Wall-E disc, put it in her DVD player and turned on the huge LCD TV mounted on the wall. We all settled in for movie night at Penny’s.

Every now and then Penny would toss a piece of popcorn at my head and pretend she didn’t, so I started to toss a few back. After a while, it turned into a popcorn battle with more on our bodies than in our mouths.

“Okay, truce,” I said.

“Wimp,” she replied.

Taking offense, I said, “Okay be that way, I’ll be leaving now.”

She leaned over and quietly said, “You had better not, I have plans for you later.” I said I was staying.

A short time later Penny and I started talking like Wall-E and Eve. Buck asked us to grow up or he’d send us to bed, without the popcorn. We started mimicking more, saying “send us to bed” in robot talk. Buck just shook his head and watched the movie while he could.

It was almost 11:00 when the movie finished, and Penny said she needed to get her sleep for work tomorrow. She looked at me and said, “There’s a soft chair in my room that you can sleep on while guarding my precious body.”

“Hmm…yeah, that would work. Excuse us, gentlemen. Don’t get up, we’ll see our way out.” Buck gave me a wink as we headed down the hall, Penny giggling under her breath.

“Think they fell for it?” she whispered happily.

“Oh, I’m sure they don’t suspect a thing.” I chuckled. I couldn’t believe this fifty eight year old woman was acting like a giggly teenager. I was really hooked on her now.

Once in her bedroom she went after me like a sex maniac. I was stripped down, and we were rolling on the bed in record time. Then we took things slow. Real slow. Oh, boy, twice in one day. This woman would kill me if she could. After a session of fantastic lovemaking, we cuddled and rested. She was asleep quite fast and, thankfully, she didn’t snore. I lay there holding her for a long while. I was not a good sleeper. Some nights it would take me hours before I would drift off then wake a couple of hours later.

I was just drifting off around 2 A.M. when I heard a noise. Being a light sleeper also helped. I sat up listening. It seemed like it was outside the bedroom window. I quietly woke Penny who sprang wide awake.

I said quietly, “Get out of bed and throw on a robe. Go in your bathroom off your bedroom. It has no windows to the outside. Go in and lock the door.”

She did. I was pulling on my pants, shirt and shoes when I heard a noise outside again. I softly went to the bedroom door and listened. I could hear the TV playing quietly and went down the hall but not out into the living room.

From the hall I could see that Buck was nowhere in the room. Deacon was sitting at the snack bar watching TV, and Tim was crashed on the recliner. I came further down the hall just as I heard glass breaking. A figure stormed in from the kitchen, firing a stun gun, hitting Deacon and incapacitating him. Tim jumped up groggily, and before he had time to react, the figure fired a second stun gun hitting Tim in the chest and knocking him out.

I turned quickly back down the hall and hid behind the almost closed door in Penny’s bedroom. I could hear soft footsteps coming down the hall and up to the door. I was trying not to breathe or pee my pants and wondering where Buck was. There was a long pause at the door, and then it slowly opened. I waited until it was half-open, then I threw my body full force into the door, bashing whoever was on the other side. I heard a howl, then the door came back at me forcing me against the wall.

I was trapped. He was strong. His head came around the end of the door. He wore a ski mask.

“Well, Richards, you didn’t heed my last warning to you? Now you can die with the TV bitch.” He shoved the door again, crushing me and taking my breath away.

“Yes, I’m going to enjoy this. Maybe I’ll have my way with Wickens. She is a looker, eh? I’ll let you watch.”

He brought his hand around the door edge. He had another stun gun. He laughed, and suddenly there was a sound from the hall.

I looked over to the crack in the door and could see Buck. He lunged forward at the killer. They both fell into the room and wrestled around on the floor. There was a small pop, and Buck fell back with the stun gun cord in his side.

He roared at the killer and wouldn’t go down. He reared back up, but the killer swung at him. Buck ducked, fell back and that gave the killer the opening to jump up and head out the door. I caught my breath and went to Buck who was trying to find his legs, but they seemed to go in different directions. His gun was tucked into his belt. I grabbed it and fired once into the ceiling to see if the outside cops were still awake.

I went to the door and carefully looked down the hall with the gun held out. I heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Summoning up my nerve, I ran out and was ready to fire the gun when the outside cops came bursting through the front door. I held my hands up, “Don’t shoot, it’s me. The killer went out the back through the kitchen.”

They ran in that direction. I returned to the bedroom. Buck was sitting on the floor in a daze.

He babbled nonsense, then lay over on his side and lost consciousness. He was still mumbling, but I knew he was going to be all right. I wasn’t going to have Penny come out of the bathroom until I was sure the killer was dead, caught or gone.

I yelled to her through the door, “Stay in there and just wait till I say it’s safe.”

I could hear her say she would. I went back to the kitchen and saw that the large window was broken.  The killer must have jumped through it into the room when he did his commando raid. I heard a shot from out back by the water, then two more shots.

I tried to see what was happening in the dark of the backyard. Suddenly I felt dizzy and short of breath. I moved back to the snack bar and had to sit and try to catch my breath. I heard a female voice from the hall calling my name. Penny came down the hall and saw me looking pale and heaving my breath. She ran to me. I had trouble talking. I was in pain.

The patrol officers came back in and rushed over to me. They did a check on me and determined I had broken ribs that were causing pressure on my lung. They had called for EMTs already and laid me down on the couch.

Penny was fretting over me as the patrol officers checked the giants, now looking rather small on the floor. I felt sorry for them when Trapper would get here.

About 4 A.M. the medics had me bandaged up like a mummy, and Buck and the giants were all sitting together on the couch looking a bit frazzled. Trapper was talking to the outside cops, and then he came over to me where I was sitting in an armchair, Penny sitting on the arm.

“OK, Richards, let’s hear your part in this attempt.” He was a bit friendly, probably since Penny wasn’t murdered. Chalk one up for the good guys.

I told him everything from when I heard a noise outside Penny’s room, in the backyard.

He looked a bit puzzled and asked, “Why were you in Miss Wickens’ room?”

We both smiled, and Trapper just said “Oh, aww…all right, let that go. So where was our hero Buck while the killer was bashing you with the door?” He looked over to Buck.

I looked over to Buck, too, wondering the same thing.

He grinned and said, “I went out for a breath of fresh air and was talking to the cops out front. I had just come back in and saw Tim and Deacon on the floor. I went to the bedroom to check on you guys. That’s when I ran into the nut job.”

“Why didn’t you have your gun out?” I asked.

“I was concerned over not shooting you or Penny, so I waited till I assessed the situation. By that time he was standing in front of me. I had no time to draw, I just jumped at him. I hate men in ski masks.” He grinned.

“George, why did you have a gun?” Trapper asked.

“I’m licensed to carry concealed, for protection from the criminal element.”

“Whatever. Just keep it concealed from me. The officers who ran out the back said the killer was escaping in a boat. That’s how he got here unseen. We were watching the road and front. He knows the layout here.” He turned to Penny. “Have you had anyone in the house recently that could get a look at the place?”

Penny thought and said, “There was a man came out two weeks ago to give me an estimate on carpeting. He drew out a floor plan with measurements. He was the only person to be in the house in a long time. I never did get the estimate. I just figured they weren’t interested in doing the job, and then I forgot about it.”

“I’ll need the name of that carpet store,” he told her. She said she would write it down and went to get the address.

Trapper looked at the giants and said, “Richards explained your part in this. I’m going to assume you men did your jobs the best you could under the circumstances. You two will still be assigned to protection. Just stay on your best.” The giants smiled and nodded.