The Deep Sleep 6
I slowly walk up the dark driveway, my reloaded 32 in hand. It feels just like walking the last night with my company in North Korea.
As I walk, I feel something in my pocket. I remember and mentally kick myself.
In my defense, I’ve been plenty busy.
After Angie woke up with all her memories, the first thing she did was slap me. But Angie’s a practical dame, and she realized I had work to do, We put Artie in my Murphy bed, and soon he was out like a light. With the ledger, she was able to trigger all the Space Girls. Under her command, they followed her to the diner. I took the station wagon.
The only back up plan I could come up with is this. Angie is to wait until 0:900. If she don’t hear from me, she’ll call SPD and ask for Sgt. Patterson. I figure Bart is clean enough to get in touch with the Feds. At least, I hope he is. The hypnotized Space Girls outta convince them that Angie’s not a loon.
The Caddy is carelessly parked on the driveway, the front door’s open. The driver seat is covered with blood, and there’s a trail of it leading to the front door.
I can’t say I’m surprised. Otto’s a monster, but I’d expect Pedro to give a good fight.
I carefully step inside. The house is dark but I see a flickering light. It’s coming from the dining room. There are candles on both the table and a big birthday cake. At the end of the table sits the Guest of Honor, the Birthday Girl.
Patricia wears a sky blue taffeta party dress and a pointed party hat. I don’t have to look to know she’s barefoot. She is busy signing a stack of papers in the candlelight. I look at one of the pages. With all of the legal jargon, it might as well be written in Greek.
”Almost finished, my dear?” Norma’s voice comes from the darkness of the attached living room.
Patty looks up, her face blank. “Yes Mumsy....just two more.”
”Good, darling. Now Johnny, we don’t want to bother her just now. Why don’t you join us in here.”
I walk over, gun ready. I’m blinded for a moment when the light comes on. Norma’s holding a 22. She’s gorgeous in a house dress. She too is barefoot, I guess so she could move about quiet like. As good as she looks, I find myself staring at Otto. He sits motionless on a seat, a pool of blood at his feet. His arms dangle at his side, his open shirt shows a savage wound near his kidney. Good for you, Pedro, I think. Volkner’s improvised field dressing has failed, and the monster has bled to death.
”I don’t get it, Norma...he sold us out to Dorvak.”
She laughed. “He didn’t betray me, Johnny...just you. The poor lug just wanted to be the one to rescue my dear stepdaughter for me. He was afraid if it was you, you’d sweep me off my feet.”
”I’m done now, Mumsy.” Patricia’s voice was toneless....just like when a gal is hypnotized in the movies.
”Wonderful, now join us, Patricia....just like we talked about.”
I hear Patty’s chair scrape on the wood floor and the soft padding of her bare feet before she steps onto the carpet
”Nice party....but signing a stack of legal documents is a strange party game.” I may be talking, but I’m ready for some rear attack from the Birthday Girl.
Norma smiles.
“I’m afraid I didn’t tell you the whole scoop Johnny. My late husband did split the money between us...that much was true. What I didn’t mention is the old bastard left the little bitch all of the stock....the controlling interest in Breckinridge Electronics. I’m just correcting that mistake.”
”Well enough of this crap. Put the gun down, Norma. You know you can’t take me in a fight.” I raise my pistol.
She ignores me. “Now, Patty.”
I brace for an attack from behind. It don’t happen. Instead, I see Patricia is holding the long cake knife to her own throat.
”Drop the gun, Johnny. She’s fully conditioned. Volkner tells me she’ll do it without hesitation if I say the word. She’s signed everything to me. I have no further use for her.”
I stall for time.
”What do I care....she means nothing to me.”
That lovely laugh comes again.
”Oh stop, Johnny. It’s your fatal flaw....under all that cynicism...you want to be a good guy. Why else would you give Patty to the Cuban.” Her voice turns to ice. “Drop your gun, or I swear.......she’ll do it.”
What else can I do....I put the gun onto a nearby table. I gotta get to my pocket.
”Good boy. Patricia, darling, be a dear and take Mr. Dupuis’ gun and aim it at his head.”
”Yes, Mumsy.” Patty puts the knife down does exactly as she is told.
I have an ace in the hole...if I can only get to it. I kick myself for not thinking about it before I got here.
”I gotta hand it to you, Norma....you played us all like Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra.”
She smiles and comes closer, putting her next to Otto. Her gun is pointed at my head.
”Thanks, Johnny. For whatever it’s worth, of all the gladiators I sent out, I wanted you to be the last man standing. I.....I could see you at my side. I did truly enjoy this afternoon. Shame we won’t be able to have second round.” Her voice is surprisingly sincere.
”Did you sleep with all of us Norma...I mean I get making love to Tony P or Pedro....even the Shrink.....but don’t tell me you slept with this mountain of shit?” I gesture with my head at the dead Swede.
She laughs again. “Please....with that ogre? I couldn’t do it with something that hideous. But, I didn’t need to....he was so stupid and lonely and pathetic, all it took was an occasional smile, a kiss on the cheek...just acting nice to the big sap and I had him twisted around my......”
Otto, not deceased, lunges out of the chair like a dying bear. He takes Norma in a crushing death hug. Then there are five muffled shots. The Swedish Mountain, falls forward, getting his final wrestling pin. Norma is trapped under him. She desperately tries to free herself, losing her now empty pistol.
I take my gun back from an unresisting Patricia.. I give her the fight song trigger, and tell her to go to her room and lay down. Norma, her voice muffled, is begging me to help her. Finally after a pleasant moment or two...I get the now actually deceased Otto off of her. She gasps for air. I help her to the sofa.
Soon she’s trying to cast her spell again.
“Johnny....I meant what I said....I want to be with you....I never wanted to hurt you....I was just scared you’d do something dumb like call the cops...I...I love you...you make me feel something. Think what we could do together with the girls...the papers...the films....my money. You and I would be unstoppable. And you’d have me....any way...any time you want. You know I’m worth it.”
Even after all she’s been through....she’s the most beautiful dame I’ve ever seen. My body is reacting to her voice like a dog seeing a bone. When you look like Norma, you don’t need hypnotism.
“You can have it all...you’ll be rich....richer than you ever dreamed and if you want to spice things up, we can have your waitress join the fun.....we’ll just trigger her and she’ll be happy to do whatever we want. I love company in bed and she’s scrumptious. All you have to do is say yes, and you’ll have it all. What do you say, Johnny? Do we have a deal?”
I smile.
EPILOGUE
By the way you’re gaping, I know you’re impressed with my new premises. My firm is now the entire fifteenth floor across from the LA City Hall. It’s a great location, my gumshoes spend a lot of time in the Hall of Records there.
I got ten detectives on the payroll, and I’m in the market for more. Most of them are buddies from my cop and Marine days. They do most of the heavy lifting. I still do some fieldwork if you can afford my hourly. Besides us private dicks, I employ twenty other staff members. There’s plans for expansion....I just opened an office in Seaside. It’s manned by Bart Patterson, the former mostly clean police sergeant. I got Irma to come back to run his office.
There’s a lot you can do when you have a couple of million bucks.
For instance, it helped Artie to build “Nico’s Taverna“. The Times just called it one of the ten best new restaurants in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The menu is all Greek, but Artie makes sure I can still get a bowl of chili with no onions.
The diner is still there, and is now manned by the Space Girls. They’re not slaves...they’re fully awake and they get a share of the profit. They’re real cute in their short waitress outfits and bare feet. That seems to be another thing about the Dorvak Method that’s permanent.
I want you to know not one cent for all of this came from Patricia. She’s fully awake and doing great now free from Dorvak and her evil step “Mumsy”.
As for Angie, she helps out managing both restaurants when she’s not busy with our kid. We named him Peter...you know same as Pedro, but in English.
I know what you’re thinking, and I oughta punch your lights out. Sure, at first, she was plenty steamed at me. I had a lot of penance to do. But I didn’t use her trigger. Angie loves me for all my warts and finally that won out. I guess I’m her fever. When I use her trigger, it’s always with her permission. We find a little hypnosis can really spice up the bedroom. I make sure she remembers everything.
Except for one time, but I’ll tell you about that later.
You’re looking at me like I signed a deal with the Devil. I guess I did. You gotta admit, Norma gave a great sales pitch.
I need my secretary so I push the intercom button and say:
”I need you.”
”I’ll be right in, Mr. Dupuis.”
Even with her hair up in a bun and with the conservative, grey secretary outfit, Norma takes your breath away. She comes in with a pen and notepad. I tease her.
”Norma...this is a respectable business. Where are your shoes and hose?”
”I told you, Mr. D....they hurt my feet. Was there anything else you need, sir? Remember, you have a 3 o’clock with Mr. Travers for Allied Insurance.“
I send her back to her desk. After all, she has a lot of typing to do.
The look on your face is priceless. I guess I gotta go back and tell you the rest of what happened that night.
”Yes or no...Johnny do we have a deal?” She’s confident now...there’s no trace of panic.
I keep smiling. Instead of answering, I pull the paper out of my pocket and do what I should done before I arrived. With all the chaos, I hadn’t had time to read it. I gotta admit, it’s a good one....it really matches the subject.
As I unfold the page, Norma realizes what I got. When I saw it in the office, I realized why she never answered the telephone. Now, her voice is again desperate.
”Look Johnny....you don’t need to do this....I’m telling you...you can trust....”
“Barefoot Norma must listen.”
She sits up and kneels. She looks at me, her lips slightly parted.
”Luck, let a gentleman see.” I’m so jacked up, I almost sing the line, like I’m in a production of “Guys and Dolls”.
Lust fills her big blue eyes. She licks her lips, and smiles like Mona Lisa.
”Just how nice a dame I can be.” Her voice is a purr.
Yeah, I signed a deal with the Devil.......But I never said we had equal bargaining power.
Norma had gone up on stage with Patricia and got hypnotized. Tony P made Dorvak promise not to trigger her. Dorvak tried to control Passanno by promising to someday give him the words. He miscalculated how desperate Tony P wanted her, leading to the plot to take down the hypnotist. He found out that Volkner was asking around about Dorvak, and figured he could help. Tony P wanted it all...the blackmail operation, the money....but most of all, he wanted Norma.
I can’t say I blame him. As for the shrink, I hope somebody in Hell tells Volkner that Norma had been “processed” the whole time.
The one time I triggered Angie without letting her remember, I made a suggestion that the best idea was to let me bring Norma into the business instead of prison.
I promise, I’m now 100% faithful to my Angelina. But why waste a good secretary? I pay her a good salary and I let her do it in her bare feet. It’s a damn sight better than she deserves.
As I mentioned......I’m not a bad guy, but then again, I’m no angel.