Dead by Midnight - Beverly Barton [158]
As the midnight hour approached, Jeff yawned several times and mentioned going to bed. Thinking quick on his feet, he managed to revive the conversation and keep it going without arousing suspicion. Then at fifteen till, he rose to his feet just as both bodyguards came into the living room after making their rounds inside and outside of the house. Jeff had explained that at 11:30 each night, the guards double-checked to make sure the house was secure.
“Before we all turn in for the evening, I have something in my suitcase that I brought for you, Jean. A little gift. Let me go get it and give it to you.”
“That’s so sweet,” Jean said. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh, but I did.” He moved toward the hallway that led to the guest bedroom. “Just give me a couple of minutes. In the meantime, prepare yourself for a surprise.”
Jean laughed. “I do love surprises.”
She wasn’t going to love this one, but at least he could give her one final, truly impressive surprise before she died. A little parting gift to the woman who had given so much to so many. The woman who had played a part in ruining his life. Of course, she hadn’t single-handedly destroyed him. She’d had a lot of help. Dean and Hilary and Charlie and Shontee. Charlene and Sonny and Lorie. And Terri.
Look at them cavorting around naked as the day they were born. The voice inside his head boomed loudly in his memory. Wicked, evil, depraved, sex-craved men and women. See the way he touches her, without love or respect. All he wants is to use her for his own perverted pleasure. How can she let him do those things to her?
Watch and learn. And never forget.
He entered the bedroom with its gleaming hardwood floors and huge windows that overlooked the patio and pool. When he had first arrived, one of the bodyguards had showed him to the room Jean had assigned him so that he could freshen up for dinner. He removed his small suitcase from the closet where he had stored it earlier this evening, set it on the bed, and flipped it open. First, he removed the beautiful mask that Puff Raven had worn in Midnight Masquerade and carefully peeled away the protective tissue paper surrounding it. Then he put on a pair of thin plastic gloves he had brought with him and removed the Glock 17 from the quilted pouch attached to the back side of the case. He had purchased the weapon this morning from a rather unsavory character, but then what other kind sold illegal guns? Over the past few months, he had learned that buying a gun that couldn’t be traced back to him was a relatively simple matter. All it required was enough cash in hand and knowing how to go about locating a seller.
He checked the semiautomatic. He would come back for the mask later, once he had killed Jean and removed her clothes.
With the Glock inside his sports coat jacket, he slipped out of the bedroom and back up the hall. A minute before reentering the living room, he pulled the gun from his pocket.
He would have to go into the room shooting. The two bodyguards would still be with Jean and Jeff.
“They are both always with Jean at midnight,” Jeff had told him.
With the element of surprise on his side, he opened fire the minute he saw the first bodyguard, striking the guy three times in rapid succession, the third bullet entering his heart. He then turned to the second bodyguard, who had pulled his pistol from his shoulder holster, but before the guard got off the first shot, he took him out with a lucky hit right between the eyes. Adrenaline surged through his body as Jean screamed and Jeff cursed.
They stared at him in utter disbelief.
He aimed the Glock at Jeff.
“It was you?” Jean asked, her eyes wide with shock. “You—you’re the Midnight Killer?”
“Don’t do this,” Jeff pleaded. “I’ll give you whatever you want. I’ll write out a check for every cent we have and—”
“This isn’t about money,” he said. “This is about what your wife and the