Page 58
Story: The Tenant
58
Stacie Parker follows the same schedule every Saturday night. I’ve been watching, so I know.
Between 8:00 and 8:30, she comes out of her apartment building, teetering in a pair of stiletto heels and a dress that is embarrassingly short. She waits for a minute or two, and then she climbs into an Uber. The Uber then brings her to a bar or club, where she wastes the rest of her night drinking and flirting with men.
I can’t believe Blake liked her. I can’t believe he threw away everything we had for that woman.
One thing I have to say for him, he’s not giving up easily. Since I moved out, he has been calling and texting me nonstop. Becky has been trying to convince me to block him, but I like watching him suffer. I especially liked the messages he sent me when he discovered Mr. Zimmerly was dead.
That must have been quite the shock for him. Mr. Zimmerly was shocked too when I hit him on the head. I wasn’t sure what to use but landed on that antique clock we bought at that flea market. Blake’s fingerprints would definitely be on it, and it felt like a good way to say goodbye to our life together. It’s only a matter of time before the police figure it out.
Right now, I am sitting in Malcolm’s car, across the street from Stacie’s building. I didn’t ask his permission to borrow it, but I knew they were staying in and he wouldn’t miss it. I need a car to do what I need to do next.
At just after eight o’clock, Stacie stumbles out of her building, looking like she’s already slightly drunk. That’s good. It will make this next part so much easier.
She doesn’t even have a jacket on, and she’s shivering in the November night air. I’m sure she has already called an Uber, so I need to be quick. I pull up in front of her building. I roll down the window before she can check my license plate, although she doesn’t seem like the cautious sort of person who would do that.
“Stacie? You called for an Uber?”
She smiles at me. “Yes, thank you.”
And then she climbs in, closing the door behind her. There’s another car turning onto the same street, and I zoom away before it can arrive.
“I’ve got water bottles in the back if you want it,” I tell Stacie.
“Oh, thanks!” she says. “Female Uber drivers are so much more considerate! I’ll definitely give you five stars.”
The water in the back serves two purposes. First, it will distract her from her phone so she won’t notice that the Uber she called is not the same car that has picked her up. Second, I used a very fine needle to inject something into her drink.
“So,” I say casually, “doing anything fun tonight?”
“Always,” Stacie giggles. “Just hanging out with the girls tonight.”
“No boyfriend?”
“No, not at the moment, sadly.”
I check in the rearview mirror, and she is drinking from the water bottle. Good. It won’t take long now before she starts to get drowsy. I used more of the sedative on her than what I used in the cookies that knocked Blake out before I swiped his phone and hid it in Amanda’s room.
Blake kept a photo of me on his desk at work, so in the back of my mind, I was a bit worried Stacie might recognize me. That’s why I bought a cheap wig, and I got a little creative with makeup. But I shouldn’t have worried. Stacie doesn’t seem the slightest bit interested in me, and anyway, she’s mostly looking at the back of my head. I’ve also got a pop music station playing loudly, on the off chance that she might recognize my voice.
“It’s hard to believe you’re single,” I comment. “I mean, if you don’t have a boyfriend, what hope do the rest of us have?”
Stacie laughs. “You would be surprised. It’s harder than you think, even for me. All the good ones are taken.”
My jaw tightens. “Oh yeah?”
“Yes. Trust me.”
“What about at your work? I’ve heard that’s a good place to meet people. Not that I would know.” I laugh good-naturedly.
“Oh no.” In the rearview mirror, I can see her shaking her head emphatically. “I tried that once, and it did not work out.”
“That sounds like an interesting story.”
I’m hoping Stacie is the sort of person who enjoys talking about herself. She certainly seems like she is.
“Not that interesting,” she says. “There was this guy…not exactly my boss, but worked right under my boss. Anyway, he was so hot. I was really into him.”
“Hard to imagine he didn’t like you back.”
“Oh, he did,” she assures me, and I want to strangle her right now. But no, too soon. Wait for the sedatives to kick in. “But he was engaged to some other girl—a real Mary Jane type. I thought I could lure him away from her. And I came pretty damn close.”
“Oh? Did you hook up?”
“Once. In his office.” She giggles again. “It was super hot.”
And there it is. Confirmation that Blake cheated on me with Stacie. I was 99 percent sure it was true, but now I have my 100 percent confirmation.
That bastard really cheated on me. I loved him with all my heart, and I believed he loved me just as much. We were supposed to spend the rest of our lives together. He ruined everything .
And now I don’t have to feel bad about what’s about to happen.
“So what went wrong?” I ask. “Why didn’t he leave his fiancée?”
I glance back in the mirror in time to catch her rolling her eyes. “After we hooked up, he got all ridiculous. He kept talking about what a huge mistake it was, and it could never happen again, and how much he loved his fiancée, blah blah blah. It was pretty pathetic. I lost a lot of respect for him after that.”
Me too.
Stacie lets out a loud yawn, head lolling against the window. “God, why am I so tired ? It’s only eight o’clock. I’m turning into an old person.”
“If you want to close your eyes, I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
She smiles sleepily. “Thanks. You’re a doll.”
A few minutes later, she is completely passed out in the back seat. Which is good, because by now she might have noticed that we are nowhere near wherever she is meeting her friends for drinks.
But the sedatives won’t last forever. That’s why I also have a bottle of chloroform next to me. That will knock her out long enough for me to bind her wrists and ankles with duct tape when we get to our final destination—a patch of woods not too far from where I used to live in Telmont, New Jersey.
And then Stacie Parker and I are going to have some fun. Well, I’ll have fun at least. And when the fun is over, I’m going to bring Blake a little souvenir for the kitchen. I think he’ll really enjoy it.
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