Lust Demented Part 7

"Oh I do Diego?"

Adelora balanced the package between her melons, jabbing at the translucent circle until the elevator light lit up. She seemed to be going through a to-do list in her mind.

"There used to be an elevator guy, but the building's cutting back lately. Touch economic waters we're wading through." Adelora mumbled dressed in a hodge-podge of Dior, D&G, and Yamamoto.

"I wade through them regardless. Once you get used to it."

"Don't get too used to it. Already slipped your mind what you inherited?"

"A punji pit of paperwork. I don't forsee myself sitting in the boardroom anytime soon."

"With that att.i.tude it's hard to believe you didn't experience success much sooner." Adelora rolled her eyes at me as the elevator opened to an empty hallway. Once again balancing the package in her bosom, she fished a magnetic card key out of her purse, and unlocked the door. The apartment door opened to a breathtaking southern view of Central Park and a minimalist modern decor.

"Now that's something to wake up to." I stared in her big brown eyes forgetting the park.

"You should see it at night. This is my favorite direction to look at the park from. It makes you feel like you own the entire city." Adelora motioned to a painting on the wall. "Lars also left me something priceless that Percy Featherton once owned." The painting was of a woman dressed only in a white blouse sitting on the floor. You had a better view of the hair on her p.u.s.s.y than her face. She was leaning against a bed that was blocking an unlit fireplace. A rectangle of light was on the floor. She apparently chose not to sit in the light, although a few of her toes seemed to sneak into it.

"It's called Summer Inferior by Ed Hopper. Something about the woman's isolation makes me uneasy."

"Yeah. I usually have that effect on women. As soon as I leave she'll feel better."

"But I'll miss you." Adelora stretched and crinkled her toes, letting down her hair.

"Lars was one of the few that understood me. It really f.u.c.ks me up that he's gone."

"I feel the same way. Despite his primitive womanizing, crazy artist bulls.h.i.+t, and the fact he was only a tad bit older than me... Lars played a fatherly role in my life. Strange thing is I don't even have anything from my own father after he pa.s.sed. My uncle tells me that he was so proud that I was going to be a lawyer until he realized that I was practicing corporate law. Supposedly, he always introduced himself to everyone as a communist. Second thing I heard he did was show off his Patek Phillipe watch. One of the richest communists you'll ever meet. Your best friend and I had similar feelings about our fathers, except my mother never allowed me to meet mine."

A buzz at the door. Diego seems stressed. Something's wrong.

"Excuse me Ms. Rosario. The police are waiting downstairs for your friend."

"Farrow. Be a good father." Teflon for the gunfight. Adelora pulled me close, laying a deep kiss on me, before sending me down with Diego.

"I hate that look on you face like a dog searching for food."

"It's all in your imagination."

"Am I in your imagination? Is our baby growing inside just a dream?"

"The girl in the elevator."

"The girl in the elevator?"

The elevator had a strong chemical smell. I felt a panic coming on, wondering what would happen if the elevator got stuck between floors and how long it would take before the toxic fumes dropped us on the floor.

"I saw you on the news."

"Did I look guilty?"

"Yes. To me you look very guilty. What does it feel like to kill someone?"

"I don't know who you are anymore." Missy seemed to really believe in the words.

The elevator opened to Sgt. Bethany Powers putting on a last touch of lipstick. Twisting the cap closed, she retrieved a plastic bag clenched between her legs.

"We found Missy."

"I've heard you say that before."

"Don't miss your last chance to look her in the eyes and say goodbye."

"I'm not going this time. Let me have my book back."

"Which one..." My book dangled in the evidence bag like a squid she just reeled up from a pier.

"The one you stole from my apartment. The one in your hands." I grabbed my book in the evidence bag allowing Sgt. Bethany Powers to use it as a leash to steer me outside.

"Hop on Farrow. We're burning daylight." Detective Anderson posed ten feet above the ground sitting on solid brown muscle. The giant cop waved his pistol, saving every bullet. The police horse neighed raising his snout at me, both nostrils flaring.

{x.x.x}.

HOOVES ON COBBLESTONES OR MAYBE just cracked cement and torn road. Bucking up a cruel storm, Detective Anderson and his trusty steer locked in on the 6th Avenue entrance leading into Central Park. I was just a tick on their back. A tick they didn't care to tear off until it was G.o.dd.a.m.n certain the fangs wouldn't stay in their skin.

"Sometimes I'm convinced that it was you, Farrow."

"Percy or Gloom?"

"Percy, Gloom, Missy, Lars, and sooner or later... yourself."

"It's odd they hired me in the first place."

"What's so odd about that?"

"Finally I'm getting paid for writing."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I have a job that has nothing to do with writing, but I knock out a couple pages a day and still get a decent salary.

"They're going to fire you."

"I'm almost finished anyway."

"It's always the same story with you."

Emptied of everything, we trotted deep into the urban oasis peacefully hooking around the pond. The ducks made trails in the water. They seemed for the most part to move together in their little crews. A few were off doing their own thing, but before they knew it they were swept up by the others. Mindlessly dragged along in their clan's foraging.

Swaying in the midnight breeze, two cops were guarding the entrance to the zoo. One of them had such a troubled look on his face that it leapt from his body into mine. My stomach instantly began to constrict with nausea. My head felt lightwired spliced into frizzing ends.

"I hear we're going to the lion's cave." Detective Anderson's deep voice bellowed through the zoo shrinking even the polar bear's t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es.

Out of the zoo's darkness a man in a labcoat approached. "There's no lion's cave here detective. Actually, I found her in the snow monkeys' enclosure."

"You found her?" Detective Anderson hopped off the horse, gesturing for me to follow without helping me down.

"Right, I'm Vivek, a monkey psychologist here at the zoo. I studied biology at Hunter..."

"A zookeeper?"

"Correct a zookeeper."

"You sticking around to give us a tour?"

Vivek nodded. He seemed to be searching for an answer. I wanted to tell him he wouldn't find one here. Eager to get on with it, the zookeeper helped us tie up the horse and get moving. Patches of darkness where lights failed to reach. Together we climbed over a fence into a rocky island surrounded by hot springs. High pitched monkey calls filled the air.

"Walk where I walk. The monkeys are used to people. Just don't do anything to scare them. They're strong and their teeth are sharp."

Detective Anderson gave me an exasperated look as we followed Vivek along the rocks stopping under a grotto. Char marks moved up the walls like demons claws. Sh.e.l.ls were scattered on the ground. Snow monkeys eyed us up and down trying to discern friend or foe.

"Divided in the way her executioner saw fit." Detective Anderson squinted, vice-like lids trapping his pupils.

"Seems she was lit on fire. That's how I realized... when I saw the flames." Vivek was disturbed, but curious.

"What's on your mind Farrow?"

The body dissected in front of me lost all its former beauty. I was no expert biologist, serial killer, or surrealistic painter. Fingers had to be attached to hands. Heads to necks. Knees to legs, and so forth. I didn't know how to take them apart, nor put them back together. The unlucky lunch meat in front of me had to be somebody at one point, but it no longer mattered. Endings were always ugly. The only way I could bear the world's ugliness was to scribble over it.

"Darkness blocking you in?" Sgt. Bethany Powers' voice was there before her body.

"You can tell us where Missy is Farrow." Detective Anderson gave the signal and Vivek made haste.

"If I knew where she was, you'd have to rip her from my grasp."

"Squeeze her so she comes back to life."

"Missy's only a memory. She's only a fantasy. The past doesn't matter to me anymore."

"But what about her lips? You can still taste them." Penetrating, Sgt. Bethany Powers' stare was more s.e.xual than accusative.

"You led me here."

"You take the words out of my mouth."

"Percy killed Monika Gloom." It was a hostage situation. I didn't want to be their source of truth, but I had to do something to prevent a bigger tragedy.

"Don't get distracted Farrow. You've been a suspect the whole time. We let you run a little wild hoping you would lead us in the right direction."

"Whose body do you think this is?"

"Why is she dead? Do you know who...?"

"I don't... it's impossible to tell."

The monkeys started chattering uneasily. A mounting attack felt imminent. Sgt. Bethany Powers beckoned for my new book back.

"It's not ready."

"That's not for you to decide." Sgt. Powers had her gun out, so it was her call... her world. I stayed on my knees and begrudgingly forked over my writing.

Sgt. Bethany Powers let the pages fall to the rocks. The maniac cop was more interested in the plastic evidence bag, which she promptly put over my head. Wrapped up as evidence myself, I watched the snow monkeys scrutinize me, slightly distorted. I tried not to gasp, when she pulled out the large sharpened scissors. I knew it was the murder weapon by the way she held it.

The air was going and all I could think about was my daughter. I was at a crossroads where I welcomed death's supposed tranquility. The last conversation I had with Hawaii haunted me. A father had to live, in case he was needed.

The suffocation came on with every choke s.n.a.t.c.hing up more air that wasn't there. I lost control of my neural capacities. My head gently swung back and forth. Sgt. Bethany Powers readied herself with the blade. I expected it across my throat, instead she popped the bag, jabbing me ever so gently with the sharp edge of the scissors. I could breathe again. I felt the cobra's fangs just by hearing her hiss. Detective Anderson grimaced chewing on a piece of .44 caliber evidence, careful not to chip any teeth.

{x.x.xI}.

DARK LAND OF SHADOWS. I couldn't see what was tracking me, but I could hear her exquisite gallop.

"You miss out on the whole world to make your own." Missy was angry again. Infuriated that I was writing instead of doing what she conceived I was supposed to be doing. My family was giving me the benefit of the doubt for what would turn out to be last time. This was the moment I was disowned. The word alone was too weak and I suspected the compulsion was layered deep in splinters of family history or frayed genetics.

"Writing controls you. Everything you try to do is interrupted with ideas. I'm surprised you can even make love to me without working on your book." Little did Missy know that sometimes I was fles.h.i.+ng it out when I was fles.h.i.+ng it out. It was always to create more vibrant sketches of the muse.

A hand showed up to wipe the sweat from my face. Kiko left some human salt on my lips. Kissing me with her entire body. "I'm going to bring you to see the last person to speak to Missy."

Stroboscopic city speeding within our zoetrope. The neon was flas.h.i.+ng, but the world stayed murky. Police cars flew by, diseased bats through the caverns. Somewhere west of Broadway, there was a small staircase between a kebab joint and a p.o.r.n emporium. The first set of steep stairs were labeled in yellow and black with the various services offered in the building: Employment Agency. Ma.s.sage. Bodywork. English School. Sauna.

The hallways had bizarre tiled patterns on the floors and dents in the walls from rowdy old bruisers. The stairs seemed to get steeper every flight we walked. Kiko ran her hands along the uneven walls absorbing their stories. A powder white woman was waiting for us on the top of the stairs.

"Farrow this is my mother Kuroneko. You'll be safe here." Kuroneko had the lightest eyes I'd ever seen. I wasn't sure what color they were since they kept changing.

"Only women inside. No problem for you." I doubted that made it any safer. Kuroneko was eager to get me out of sight. In a low voice she seemed to be giving Kiko instructions on how to handle the situation. Kiko just kept nodding, but her face told a different story. The way she looked into my eyes put me at ease. Let me know she was doing things her way.