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#Post#: 3036--------------------------------------------------
Haunted by the Past - Chapter 34 - One of Many
By: RampageSports Date: April 19, 2016, 9:32 am
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Author's Note: The Spenser, Hawk, Susan Silverman, Vinnie Morris
and Ives characters belong to mystery novelist Robert B. Parker.
Mr. Parker is one of my favorite authors, and his work is a
major influence on the the way I write. Whether I even come
close to mimicking his style is open to considerable debate, but
I have chosen to use his characters in this story as something
of an homage. My goal is to handle them as lightly as possible
and to maintain them as Mr. Parker created them. Any failure on
that front is completely my own.
[hr]
Haunted by the Past - Chapter 34 - One of Many
I took the right from Summit Ave onto Paterson Street and said a
little thank-you prayer to the parking gods when I found a spot
only halfway down the block. We trooped back to the main road
and waited casually in front of Dickie Smalls' apartment
building. The appearance of the structure matched the
neighborhood that surrounded it - a little run-down, but not
bad, overall. The brick fronting was completely covered in
plain red paint, which indicated a healthy amount of meh went
into the decor planning. The zigzag patterns of efflorescence
along the mortar joints suggested the same attitude was being
applied to the upkeep.
The building sat near the middle of the section of Jersey City
known as The Heights. When my parents had called this city
home, this was the section you aspired to live in. While it was
not necessarily a bad area now, the collective half-hearted
effort seemed to have taken its toll.
Of course, maybe I'm just a suburbian snob. Who knows?
We gained access by pulling the ever-popular now, what did I do
with my keys? routine when another tenant exited. So, now I
stood outside apartment 3B and thought about my approach. At
the last moment, I adjusted my blouse � undoing a few extra
buttons to reveal considerably more skin than I normally would.
From her position beside the door, Danni made a face like I was
crazy, then impatiently hooked her thumb in the direction of the
entranceway.
I mouthed the words shut up at her as I reached up and knocked.
There were a few fumbling and bumbling noises from inside the
apartment, then a prolonged period of silence before the door
opened.
Dickie Smalls was not an attractive man. He was at least fifty
pounds overweight, though the gray sweatpants and threadbare,
too-small t-shirt look he was currently sporting made him look
much heavier than that. His hairline was receding, and what
hair remained was thin and stringy - like the last remnants of a
neglected lawn. His teeth were yellowed and checkered with the
silver-gray badges of past decay.
Only his eyes � blue and clear, even in the dim light of the
apartment building � offered any indication that this was a man
who once had the power to make Danni swoon.
Rather than judge, I gave Danni the benefit of the doubt and
simply assumed that time had not been kind to poor Dickie.
"Whad'ya want?" he grumbled.
Oh, yeah. A real charmer, this guy.
"Mr. Smalls?" I said sheepishly.
"Yeah?"
"My name is Richelle," I said. "A friend of mine said you might
be able to help me with my acting career."
My words had an immediate impact, as the scent of dollar bills
sponged the scowl from his face. He straightened up and dragged
his right hand across his shirt � wiping off the cheese doodle
dust I hadn't previously noticed. I surmised this to mean I was
now in the presence of Dickie Smalls, man of business.
He made a big production of studying me in much the same way a
jeweler appraises a diamond ring � carefully observing every
curve and nuance of my body. I swallowed the urge to ram my
fist down his throat and tried to remember I was doing this for
Danni.
Then, my new friend Dickie opened his mouth and made it
impossible for me.
"I guess you look pretty good," he said, "for a woman your age."
Nope. Uh-uh. There was no way I was going to stand here and
have my physical appearance critiqued by Mr. Doodle Fingers.
I shook my head in disgust and said, "Just do it."
"Do what?" Dickie asked.
Then Danni spun into the doorway and said, "Hiya Dickie," just
before she slammed her fist into the center of his piggie little
face.
With no idea what was happening, Dickie did nothing to defend
himself. He didn't even have the presence of mind to flinch and
try to soften the blow. The punch hit him square in the mouth,
and he backpedaled and stumbled until he fell over his coffee
table and landed sprawled out on the worn and grimy wooden
floor.
Danni strode straight for him, a fierce determination in her
eyes. I slid in last and closed the door.
Sensing he was in deep sh*t, Smalls rolled over instantly and
curled into a defensive ball. That's when he got his first good
look at his attacker.
"Danneel!" he cried as recognition sank in. "Are you f*cking
crazy?"
"Yes," she said, stepping around the table and stalking her
prey. "Yes, I am."
He kicked out at her as she approached. She easily caught his
foot, then lifted it and gave a good, hard kick to the back of
his thigh. Dickie yelped and tried to scramble away. Danni
released the foot and let him go. He made it to the wall and
climbed up backwards to regain his feet, a thin line of blood
trailing from the corner of his lips.
Suddenly, Dickie's expression hardened as he tapped into some
sort of testosterone reserve inside him. Much like Powers had
done with me, he didn't view a woman as much of a threat. Much
like Powers, he was going to pay dearly for his chauvinistic
miscalculation.
"You hit me again, and you're gonna pay b*tch!" he roared.
"No," Danni said evenly. "I won't."
She advanced on him again, but Dickie stood his ground. When
she got close, he took a feeble swing at her. She swayed out of
reach, then backhanded him across the face. He spun with the
blow, and she neatly threaded a straight right over his
shoulder, smacking her fist into his cheek as he turned. Then
she put her forearm against the back of his neck, slammed his
head into the wall and held him there. With her free hand, she
grabbed his wrist and bent it up behind his back.
"You might wanna stop," she said calmly, "or I'm going to be
forced to break something."
Even someone as dumb as Dickie could tell she wasn't talking
about smashing a lamp.
He started flailing his free arm like a wounded bird �
struggling mightily but getting nowhere. Slowly, it started to
sink in. Woman or no, Danni was stronger and faster than he
was.
And he didn't even know the half of it.
"What do you want?" he said, opting for a new approach.
"You have a video," she said. "A video you shouldn't have had
to begin with. A video I f*cking paid you to get rid of. But
somehow, some very bad people got hold of it."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" he protested. "I
don't have any video!"
"Yes, you do," Danni said. "I know you do because, when they
were done with you, they came for me."
An icy coldness underscored her words. A forced calmness that
was so starkly out of place for the situation, it was scary.
"I don't know anything about that!" he protested. "I don't know
who you're talking about!"
She gave him a shot with the forearm, and Dickie's head banged
into the wall again with a solid thunk.
He squealed in a very un-masculine way, then started to whimper.
"Stop lying to me," Danni said. "I know you have it, because
they had it. What I want to know is, how did they know about
it?"
"I don't know! I never told anyone about it! I swear!" he
said.
Continuing to lie to Danni when she was already so close to
snapping his worthless little neck seemed stupid, even for
someone of Dickie's obvious intelligence deficiency. Could he
be even stupider than he looked? It didn't seem possible.
"Why didn't you destroy it, like you were supposed to?" she
asked.
"I did!"
She backed him a step off the wall, then slammed him forward
again, his forehead making a sizable dent in the sheetrock.
"They had the video, moron. So, it's obviously not destroyed.
Now, I'll give you one last chance before we find out just how
far your arm can bend before it snaps."
Her voice remained even and matter-of-fact, but the way she kept
bouncing him off the wall like a racquetball told Smalls all he
needed to know about the danger he was in. The question was,
what to do about it?
The honest response would be for Dickie to say that, no matter
what he'd promised, he never had any intention of destroying the
video. What if she'd really hit it big? With the video, he
could try to milk her again.
But he kept his mouth shut � his little voice of
self-preservation telling him Danni was likely to kill him if he
spelled things out so directly.
That same survival instinct probably put the next idea in his
head too, as his tiny little brain worked overtime to find a way
out of this.
"Okay, fine!" he said. "You want the video? I'll give it to
you. No problem."
"Yes, sh*thead. I want the video."
"Okay, okay! Just let me go get it."
She released him, then shoved him along the wall.
"Make it fast," she said.
Dickie slinked away and disappeared into the bedroom.
I sighed deeply.
"What?" Danni asked.
"I'm pleased to see our recent experiences have not corrupted
your soul to the point that you can read the degenerate mind," I
said, rebuttoning my shirt as I crossed the room to the
double-hung window.
The window looked out on the narrow strip of parking lot that
ran behind the building and connected Paterson to Bleeker Street
- a scene that was depressing enough on its own. Having to view
it through the chipped and rusted metal frame of the building's
fire escape made it all the more gloomy.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked.
I opened the window and backed my way onto the creaky emergency
staircase.
"Don't let him come back through the door," I said.
"What are you doing?"
"You'll see. Just watch the door."
No sooner had I stood myself up when the bedroom window opened
and a partially zipped and haphazardly packed duffle bag was
tossed out onto the metal platform. Dickie's head came out
next, and I punted him in the face and sent him crashing back
into the room.
I took a minute to empty the contents of the bag over the side
of the metal staircase � cause f*ck him � then climbed into the
bedroom.
Danni was there by the time I got in, and she had no trouble
putting things together.
"You little f*cking sh*t!" she said.
Each word became it's own sentence, and it took her a few
seconds to get the word f*cking out of her mouth because she
dragged the f along as her rage bloomed.
She grabbed a handful of the scant hair on his head and lifted
him to his feet. Then, she pushed a kick into his chest. She
held nothing back from the blow, and Dickie struggled to stay
upright as he wobbled and bobbled away. His stumbling stopped
when he hit the bed frame, fell onto � then bounced off of � the
mattress, and tumbled to the floor on the other side.
"Oooh, good one!" I said to Danni.
"How'd you know he was gonna run?" she asked without looking at
me.
Her clipped speech was a clear sign that her sense of humor was
currently disabled and would remain that way until this little
episode was over.
"Hmmm," I said, stepping past her and around to where Smalls lay
cowering on the floor. "How did I know? Huh, Dickie?"
"I... I don't know!"
"Oh, sure you do," I said. "I mean, it's 2016, right? So,
where the f*ck were you going? Were you gonna go get the DVD?
Maybe a VHS?"
Dickie just shook his head pathetically.
"No, of course not," I continued. "A guy like you... you gotta
protect your investment. That means digital, right? Online
backups, and..."
"I don't do that," Dickie cried.
Without another word, I slapped him in the face.
"Try again," I said.
"Yeah, okay... yeah," Dickie said.
I was delighted to see a bright red duplicate of my handprint on
his cheek.
"So, where is it?" I said to Dickie. "Apple? Google?"
"No, no. I just keep it on my hard drive."
"Ohhh, Dickie," I lamented. "You're just not seeing this
clearly, are you? Well, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go
sit in the living room, and I'll let Danni explain things to you
a little better. Then, if you're still alive, we can try this
again."
He just blubbered and said nothing.
"Okay, then," I said. "Danni, I guess I'll see you later.
Dickie... well, I doubt I'll ever see you again."
I started toward the door as Danni proceeded around the bed.
"It's Dropbox!" he cried out.
I waggled my eyebrows at Danni.
"Apparently, you're a very scary b*tch," I said.
"Mmm," she said, still paying no heed to my humor.
"Alright, Dickie," I said, continually using his name as though
it were a vulgarity, "get up and log me on."
"Can't I just delete it?" he asked.
"No," I said. "Now, get up."
With little choice in the matter, he got up and slid his way
over to the PC sitting atop a cheap, pressed board desk in the
corner of the room. I stood behind him and watched as he logged
in and started up his browser. He navigated to the DropBox
website, entered his username and password, then hesitated.
"Can't we just..."
I put my foot against the back of the rolling chair he was
sitting in and pushed, slamming him into the desk and pinning
him there.
"Gaaaah!" he cried.
"I am losing my patience with you, Dickie, and that's a bad
thing. Believe me when I tell you that, when I get angry, I'm
not nearly as nice as Danneel. Now, hit enter."
He did as I asked, and I released the chair.
His home directory came up, and there were dozens of folders to
sort through.
"Get up," I said.
"But..."
I whacked him hard in the back of his head.
"Get. Up."
He stood and moved away from the chair. I sat and took over
operating the computer.
After a few false starts, I found a folder labeled Videos.
Beneath that, I found what I was looking for in a subfolder
named Client Vids.
When the folder's contents appeared, I stopped breathing for a
second.
"My god..."
Danni stepped behind me, drawn in by my shocked muttering.
The folder contained hundreds of video files, each named with a
very precise system. About half-way down, I found
Harris_Danneel_1.avi, and it was the only one with Danni's name
on it.
But the others...
Most were women I'd never heard of, but some of the names were
familiar. A number of them came right off the UMMA roster.
"You lousy f*ck," Danni said, her voice trembling with rage.
Dickie let out an audible "Oof!" as she sank her fist into his
soft belly. He doubled-over from the blow, and she lifted her
knee up and drove it into his face.
He crumpled to the floor, banging his head on the wall as he
fell.
Before I knew it, Danni was on top of him � kneeling across his
chest and pinning his arms to the floor.
"This is what you do?" she snarled, punctuating the remark with
a crisp right to his unprotected face.
His only answer was a plaintive whimper.
"Were you ever any kind of agent," she yelled, hitting him
again, "or where you just a sleazeball pornographer?"
He cried some more, but Danni was in no mood to take pity on
him. She stopped with the questions and started hitting him
non-stop, using both hands.
"Danni," I said.
She kept going as if she couldn't hear me.
"Oh, Dan-ni," I sing-songed.
Still nothing. She'd gone completely off the reservation.
I got up and put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped
immediately and spun to face me, and I could see in her eyes
that this woman was not Danni. Physically it was, but she
seemed to have been invaded by the spirit of a ferocious animal.
"You can't kill him," I said.
What happened next was painful to watch. First, I saw the
lights come back on inside her. Then, she looked down at the
bloody wreck she'd made of Dickie. She held her hands up in
front of her � hands that, only seconds before, had been
operating with no input from her conscience � then looked down
again at what she'd done.
"It's alright," I said. "He'll be alright."
She just kept staring at him.
"Hey," I said, "why don't you go find him a towel?"
It took a moment for my words to reach her. Then, she stood
numbly and left the room without a word.
"That b*tch is crazy," Dickie mumbled when she was gone.
"You reap what you sow, assh*le," I said. "Don't look to me for
sympathy."
"She's f*cking crazy," he mumbled again.
I ignored him and went back to the computer. What had started
as a chance for Danni to give this useless wad a piece of her
mind had taken a bad turn, and now I just wanted to be done with
it.
I grabbed a piece of paper and made a list of the names I
recognized. Then I went back to the root folder, deleted
everything and accessed the deleted files list and purged them
permanently.
Danni never came back, so I found a blanket in Dickie's closet
and told him to mop himself up. Once he did, he didn't look
nearly as bad.
I squatted beside him and held the piece of paper in front of
me.
"I know some of these women, you understand?" I said. "I'm
going to talk to them. Tell them what happened here. So, if
they ever hear from you again, I'll find out. If that happens,
there won't be anyplace for you to hide. I'll find you, and I
will finish what Danni started. Do you understand me?"
Dickie held the wadded blanket to his face and seemed lost in
his own thoughts.
"Hey!" I said, flicking my finger into his forehead. "I need
you to tell me you understand."
"I understand," he said.
"You believe me?" I asked.
"What?"
"Do you believe I will kill you, Dickie?"
He studied me for a moment.
"Yes," he said finally.
"Good."
I left him there with his busted face and bloody blanket, and
went and found Danni staring into the parking lot from the
living room window.
"It's done," I said.
She nodded, then headed straight out the door without saying
anything. I followed, pulling the door closed behind me.
[hr]
Character Reference
http://s19.postimg.org/x7gm9w22n/Richelle_100x120.jpg
Name: Richelle Winterfeld
Nickname(s):
Background: Owner of the RSI stable, former underground fighter
http://s19.postimg.org/9av3z511b/Danni_100x120.jpg
Name: Danneel Harris
Nickname(s): Danni
Background: RSI stable leader, reigning DEF welterweight
champion
#Post#: 3037--------------------------------------------------
Re: Haunted by the Past - Chapter 34 - One of Many
By: BadAssBunnies Date: April 20, 2016, 10:48 pm
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Not a good day to be named Dickie Smalls. I was hoping you
weren't going to give him a pass.
#Post#: 3038--------------------------------------------------
Re: Haunted by the Past - Chapter 34 - One of Many
By: RampageSports Date: April 21, 2016, 7:18 am
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Is there ever a good day to be named Dickie Smalls? :P
There was no chance I was going to let a character like that go
without his proper punishment. Or, at least, something
approaching it. I think the whole "move him to NJ" idea was a
little bit of a stretch, but once I got the idea to let Danni
have a go at him... I just had to find a way to make it happen.
Glad I didn't let you down on this one. ;)
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