AZOTUSLAND Chapter Ninety-two

As soon as the door closed behind him he snapped open the cellphone and buzzed Maugham. Maugham had become antsy and had simply walked down and found Hart's car and sort of hid in the shadows.

"Maug."

"BroHart"

"Game on bro."

"I'm at your car."

"Good. Seeya in two."

Snap. Snap.

Maugham came out of the shadows when he was sure Hart was alone. There was no taking chances with this woman. A man had died and she was serious business.

Hart came up casually and lighted a cigarette and Maugham loomed up from behind and said "those things will kill ya."

"Yeah, well so will she Bro," he said then unlocked the car door and gave Maugham the gun from under his seat.

"She has a gun in her purse," Hart said.

"Doesn't surprise me at all. You know I hate guns..but I'll take this one and meet you back at the hotel in an hour. If I am not there by then...or let's say two hours, call the police and give then this card." He handed Hart Volosky's card and Hart handed Maugham the red card key to her room.

"I'll see you in an hour!" Hart said as he walked off.

"Not if I see you first Bro."

And Hart laughed.

*************

Maugham was not laughing. he steeled his mind with the loss of Jacob and how this woman had tried to terrorize his best friend. He remembered to blazing eyes the night she wanted him to bang her while she was still ostenesibly with Jim. She was a sociopath and only understood power and threat.

Maugham and Jim had run over the options. They had called Martine down to review the final plan to get a more feminine perspective. She made some slight alterations, looked worried at Maugham who feigned it was no big deal.

That night Martine came down to Silo 2 to be with Jim and be by the phone.

"Could be awhile," Jim said. "What would you like to watch?"

"Anything funny," she said .

"I suppose Love and Death is out of the question?"

"Very funny Jim. How about Intolerable Cruelty?"

"Even better." And he cued it up on the large screen.

***********

Maugham slided the card key into the door and it blinked open. Whe he got inside it was dark. This was unexpected. He had to modify the plan and it unnerved him.

She called out to him from the bed because he could her rustle in it. He knew the deal.

Then Maugham smiled. When he and Hart had been back in college one of their tricks was to immate each other's voices. Hart's was more distinct. It was emphatic, crisp and swift.

"Steven, please just come to bed and hold me okay?"

"Yes," Maugham mimiced. "I'll be right in just let me prepare."

He heard a big sigh from the room as he dropped his coat in the long hallway leading in. He tied his hair back quickly and stripped down to his shorts. He took the gun and under his coat slipped off the safety and moved like a panther into the room and slided the gun down under the bed near the nightstand. Then he pulled back the sheets and was on her.

He kissed her nipples and held her full breasts and she moaned and then she wrapped her legs around his body as his hardness began to rub up against hers but as she moved her hands down his back and found he had shorts on she stopped.

"Surprise" Maugham said in his own low and steady voice. Then he switched on the light and grabbed her wrists and spread out her legs with his own and said. "Fuck you Candice."

She struggled at first and even tried to bite him but he gave her a quick warning butt to the forehead and she settled back.

Her nostrils flaired with fury and death. "No, fuck you Maugham."

"No, fuck you Candice," he said with spite.

"NO fuck you Maugham."

"Well I suppose I could have fucked you Candice," Maugham said more angry. "But that's like fucking the Grim Reaper. You make me sick."

She spat in his face and he simply bit her nipple too hard and she moaned.

"I have a message for you," Maugham said as he smeared the spittle back onto her body.

"You are done in California. The police have your prints and know about Jacob and are investigating. We have all your phone, home and account information from this little junket thanks to Steven, who is not even from here. He's already gone."

She raised her head up again to bite him and he gave a her a more serious head butt. "Settle down Candice. If you play this right you may escape prison though we'd love to see you either there or a zoo."

She tried to move her legs but Maugham's body tensed and he moved them even farther apart.

"Now let's get this over" he said suddenly as he rolled off, hit the floor grabbed up the gun and had it leveled at her head in seconds. She never even got near her purse but was trying when Maugham said "Move and you are dead!"

She turned in the small yellow light and saw the gun trained on her head. She was hardly conscious she was naked and only wondered what it would feel like, or not feel like, to have a bullet enter her own brain. It's how her brain worked even when it was threatened. She looked closely at Maughams eyes to see if there was any weakness or sentiment. There wasn't.

She slumped down on the bed and Maugham walked around and grabbed her purse, opened it, keeping a sharp eye on her, and found the gun.

"I want you to lay down, face down, on the bed," he ordered.

"What, you wanna do me from behind?" she asked harshly.

"Do it."

When she did he climbed on top bearing his weight down and slipped off his belt and pulled her arms back and belted them together.

Then he took a pillow case and used it to muzzle her. As he did, she cursed herself for not having screamed earlier, but he had been utterly unexpected.

"Don't move or I will either hurt or shoot you," he said. Then he got off the bed and went and dressed. He wanted to wash his face and shower but not with this one around even tied naked on a bed.

When he got back she was still laying there. Maugham sat in the chair an explained things to her.

"You have no soul Candice, so nothing can be done for you," Maugham said flatly. "Jim is a compassionate man and I am not. And you exploit compassionate men for your own purposes but you will not ever come near Jim again. In fact you will not return to California. The police have your fingerprints thanks to Brian Cox in Seattle."

With this news her eyes got wide and she trashed a bit.

"See Candy we are onto you completely and so are the police. They have the prints, the pictures from Seattle that I took and also all your personal information. So if you go back to California you will find yourself in the middle of a murder investigation for which they will finally find evidence and you will go to prison."

Maugham let this sink in a bit and walked over and grabbed a beer from the bar.

"Personally I think you are an animal who should just be shot. I know the way your mind works. You were simply curious when Jacob died and you just watched. I have no doubt whatsoever that had you gotten to this (he held up her gun) I'd be stone cold dead in an instant. That's the way your twisted brain thinks."

She calmed down more.

"Unlike my brain because I don't wish you dead, just a faded memory. Make no mistake, I will shoot you if need be. Not a question. So are you ready to talk because we need some agreement here if I'm gonna let you live."

Candice nodded in agreement. Maugham climbed on top again and undid the belt and laced it back through his jeans. Then he took off the gag and told her to get dressed.

As she did he wiped down the room keeping her in sight the whole time. Then he told her she should get a drink and she did and sat back on her bed.

"I hate you," she said.

"I know, so I don't take it personal. But then again fuck you."

"No, fuck you Maug," she said.

"No fuck you Candy," he said.

And she laughed and said "you should have fucked me. Angry sex is great."

"No it's not Candice."

"You could still fuck me Maug," she said, undoing her top and exposing her breast.

Maugham resisted the temptation to torture a lost soul and simply moved to the particulars.

"Your plane reservations back to California have been cancelled, as are your next two nights stay here. So you are without a home to go back to, airfare or a place to stay here."

Her nostrils began to flair again and Maugham lifted the gun up a little higher.

"Let's be rational about this," he said. I am leaving you the card of the detective who is looking into Jacob's murder and he would love to hear from you. They got a search warrant for your place while you were gone and have found evideince that would directly link yoyu to the murder of Jacob.

In the meantime, all of your credit card information is also being tracked as you are a major suspect in a homicide, so if you try and use them you will no doubt be arrested and extradicted back to California and end up in prison the rest of your life. Any questions?"

She pondered the options for awhile and Maugham sipped his beer. She thought about cutting his throat somehow, but he had both guns.

"So what do I do?" she asked finally.

"If I were you I'd do more research on the name and nature of another woman named 'Alabaster' and do likewise. Otherwise you're on your own."

Then Maugham got up and took one last look around the room, pocketed his beer bottle in his long coat, said "If ever see you again you get two in the forehead with your own gun and they'll call it suicide, which is another option for the already damned." Then he left.