Nigel Nelson and the Artist - Chapter 4

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

Chapter 4

    I sat there and took it in. The painting was horrific and revealed the next crime. I knew the person that was going to be next, but the time was growing short. The only upside to knowing who it was that was going to die next was the fact that I knew that I was going to be next. I was hanging by my neck on the painting. My blood veins grew cold as the one killing me was Taylor, my love. There was a date and time and meeting place.

"Uh...NO! You are not going to be going to that meeting!" said Hammond from behind me.    

"You don't get it, Hammond. I'm going to die whether I go to the meeting or not. If I go, then maybe I will have a chance at stopping the killer."   

"You are going to sit here and I'm calling the police," said Hammond.    

"Taylor is not the one that is going to kill me. She was kidnapped."   

"You don't know that for sure."   

"I know that she would not kill me. She is in trouble. I won't be dying any time soon," I said.    

"You still don't know who the killer is. Jane Plenty and Bella Burns are both out there as suspects. Is there anything that ties them together?" asked Hammond.   

"You know, now that I think about it, I don't think I saw them together in one place. I either saw one or the other. I feel like they are quite alike in look and in their voice, but they aren't that similar to probably make a difference."   

"Could it be that they are doppelgangers?" I have heard of that sort of thing happening to people that are similar. They seem to take a similar person's life as their own."

I had felt that Hammond was quite humorous in how he thought of every little thing as I did. He was bound and determined to help make it so I didn't have to go to this meeting place.    

"They are not doppelgangers, but maybe twins! How insane would that be?!?"   

"Whoa, I never would have thought about twins. What does this mean then?" asked Hammond perplexed by the development.   

"That means that I am not next on the list. One of the twins would likely be next."   

"I don't follow. You mean that you think that one of them is going to possibly kill the other? But why?"   

"The same motivation that passes into every other killer and murderer, Hammond, greed."   

"Dude, that is the dirtiest thing I have ever heard in my life," replied Hammond putting his hand over his mouth and his eyes getting wide.   

"You don't think that if you had a twin that was set to benefit and gain millions of dollars through an inheritance or a circumstance that would make that money available that you wouldn't kill your own twin?"   

"It makes me sick just thinking about it. I'm exuberant that it's not you that's going to be next, but dang man, its just, inexplicable."   

"No Hammond...its murder."   

"Mr. Plenty didn't stand a chance with these two women on the loose," said Hammond shaking his head.   

"Alright, let's get going," I said and got up to move towards the door.   

"Where in the heck are you going? You are not going to that meeting time and place, are you?" asked Hammond looking scared out of his wits.    

"No man, but I can't ignore the fact that Mr. Plenty uttered the words, 'blue eyes.' It's been rolling around in my mind and I think that blue eyes mean, 'Blue Ice' as in Blue Ice Cafe."   

"You want to go to a cafe that may be connected to a man that is dead? You are on your own with that one," said Hammond leaning back in his chair and turning on the TV.

There were only a few ways to get Hammond motivated to go somewhere or do something. You either had to throw down some food or make him feel like he was going to miss out on something

"What happens when I get down there and they ask me if I want a juicy bacon cheeseburger with a malt? You know I can't handle all of that goodness; the black-tie velvet chocolate cake with ice cream on top with a tall glass of milk for dessert," I said opening the front door and walking out.   

"Oh man! Alright, alright, I'm coming, but if we find either one of those twins, if they really are twins, dead in this place, I think I just might have to hit you," said Hammond looking at me rather sternly.   

We arrived at the cafe to find that the cafe was completely empty. It was lunchtime and there was not a soul in the cafe. There were just a chef and a waitress. We sat down at a table in the corner. The paint was blue in the cafe and there was classic leather seating and there was a very dated feeling about the place. The waitress was wearing a poodle skirt that went to her ankles, high white socks and she wore a perm in her hair.   

"How can I help you two boys?" asked the waitress, putting her hand on her hip.

She chewed her gum very loudly and set down sets of silverware.    

"What is the special today?" I asked.   

"The special is a burger, fries and a Coke for eight bucks a piece," replied the waitress.   

"We will take two of those, please. While you're at it, make sure we have plenty of fries to eat with that burger."

I was trying to get a reaction out of the waitress. She turned to put our order in nonchalantly, but I saw her stare at me from over her register. I had struck a chord with her. She knew something about the Plenty family. I would need to do some interrogating to get her to talk, but it may prove to be much more than what I thought I could handle.    

I observed that the cafe was freshly painted within the last couple of days. I could see the waitress watching me from the kitchen. The cafe had just had a facelift. The bar stools were upholstered to fresh fabric, the soda machine was replaced, and it had a new building smell. A new waitress came out with our food a few minutes later. Everything was piping hot and the malt was very cold. Hammond had a strange emotion on his face when the new waitress came out. He was probably thinking exactly what I was thinking.   

The waitress set the food down and as she did I spoke, "So, what happened to the other waitress?"    "She went on her lunch break."

The second waitress left Hammond and me to eat.

"Okay, thank you, the food looks delicious!" I replied.

I bit into my burger. The juice and grease ran down my chin from the luscious burger. I put a few fries in my mouth with a big dollop of ketchup to give it that American flavor. My hand threw in some ice cold malt to wash the food down.   

"You don't buy that the first waitress is on her lunch break, do you?" asked Hammond.   

"What do you take me for ole' chap, a twit? Of course, I don't believe that she is on her lunch. I'll bet that right now she is already gone from the cafe," I said putting another fry in after another bite of burger.   

"What? Why the heck are we still here?"   

"Because there is something more for me to glean here," I said waving a fry around getting ready to eat it.   

"Nigel, don't eat that fry!" said Hammond hitting the fry out of my hand.    

"Hey! What's the big idea?!?" I asked shoving Hammond.

He went to pick it up with a napkin. He was turning about as white as can be. I had never seen him like this before.    

"I hit it out of your hand because..." Hammond said between a dry heave.

"This is a finger and not a French fry."

Hammond dropped the finger from his napkin and ran for the restroom, hands over his mouth to keep the vomit in.

I didn't feel as good as I had a second ago, mainly because I had been eating fries and had picked up a finger in my hand and was going to eat it. I picked up my napkin and examined it. The skin was fried to a crisp and was coated with an outer batter. I probably would have thrown up had it not been for the fact that I saw this type of thing just about every day.

The question that haunted my mind was this, 'who's finger was this and where did the waitress go.' I skipped on the rest of the fries and finished the burger and malt.

We had one body, two suspects and one finger that was unrecognizable. I could feel the tension starting to rise and picked up my cell phone to call the captain. I looked and I had received a message from someone that I had lost contact with quite a while ago. I could feel my skin start to tingle and the pit of my stomach ached. My skin turned a pale color and my mind felt as lost as it had ever been. I had received a text from Taylor.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net