AZOTUSLAND chapter Sixty

Jacob lay like stone in the bed as she got up and fixed herself a drink.

She was naked and amused. He had not seen it coming as he had been grabbing her shoulders and arching and thrusting on top and inside her. Then his eyes had gotten wide and he slowed and said he felt "cold". Then she watched him slip away a bit at a time and it amused her.

"I can't feel my feet," he said in a small panic. Then his arms went numb. She heaved him over onto the side of the bed and watched his breath get more shallow. There was a gurgling in his throat and bewilderment in his eyes as she watched him pass away.

She had simply poisoned him before they went to bed. It was easy to do and he suspected nothing. It had slightly excited her after he had drank fully and he turned to take her body. She felt nothing for him but curiosity at when he would know and how he would react. So she had pulled at his hair as he stripped off her panties, and she spread open her legs to take him in like an open and fresh grave.

Now she wrapped up in a robe and sent off an email to both Jim and to Maugham:

Boys,

Something terrible has happened on your very watch. Why did you do this? What possible gain could you conceive? You must pay for your considerable sins and what has happened.

Rnonymous

*******

Jim had actually had a good time with Ted. When he dropped him at his Suburban he called out to him "Ted...you'll think about my offer?"

Ted looked at the pavement. "I always thought you were crazy," he said. Then smiled. "Yeah, sure...I'll pray on it."

Way up the stairs and in the Bunkhouse Manfred was dancing around the room with a big bowl of ice cream...the last of Jim's Rocky Road.

"Rocky Roads!! Rocky Roads!!" Manfred cried out. "Take me homes...Rocky Roads!" Then he disappaered into his room and hit the play button and restarted his favorite move, The Party.

Martine finished closing up the Azotus and went to find Maugham. She wondered why he seemed troubled lately and wondered if she had done something wrong.

It had taken Martine a long time to decide to trust Maugham, or any man for that reason. But she did. She just wondered.

*******

When Andy went to sleep that night he thought about all his plants now planted around the old estate and it made him happy. Miss Estell and Grandpa Barker had worked the hardest and done a remarkable job by all reports. He decidied that in a few weeks he would tour the garden and put some of his fear behind him. This is what he hoped.

Jonathan stopped on his bike at a small club in downtown and went in for a drink. It was a slow night and he asked the night manager who was in charge of various acts.

"My son handles all of that," The barkeep said. "Here's his card."