Once Bitten, Twice Dead Read online

  “It’ll be fun—it’ll really be Iceland, not the travel channel.” Shane had this wonderful ability to forget. I think he had forgotten that we were after a killer, not on vacation with each other.

  “We’re supposed to dock in two hours, Raven. I’ll show you some of the clothes.”

  “You think we should get off the ship, Shane? I don’t want to lose track of David.”

  “Well, I’m getting off. I want to see Iceland.”

  “I guess I’ll go with you. Selby is not going to get off the ship. He’s going to finish his mission. He’s not going to turn into a tourist.”

  “What do you mean, ‘his mission’? Is he going to kill another person on the ship?”

  I still didn’t want to panic Shane by telling him about the bomb. “Of course he could kill. He’s a serial killer. They don’t stop.”

  “Do you know who he’s stalking?”

  “Never mind with all the questions, Shane. Show me some of those warm clothes. I feel cold already.”

  Shane was not much bigger than I, so his sweatpants and shirts fit me pretty well, just a little baggy. He also gave me a big down jacket, plus gloves and stocking hat. When I put it all on and looked in the mirror I was reminded of the old movie, The Thing. I was playing the title role.

  As we pulled into port, the Captain made an announcement detailing some of the sights we could see during our four hours of docking.

  “What about the ice bar, Raven? That sounds interesting.”

  “Yeah I can’t think of a better place to be in a freezing climate than in an ice bar. Maybe I’ll get a nice cold drink.”

  “Then it’s settled. We’ll go there.”

  I hate it when people miss my sarcasm.

  I had to admit that the bar was unique. The walls and ceiling were made entirely of ice, and even the bar stools were constructed out of the same crystalline stuff. Oddly enough, now sipping my second apple martini I didn’t feel cold. Those warm clothes of Shane’s had help tremendously, especially since I put them on an hour before we were supposed to debark. I was still pretty toasty.

  “I’m just realizing, Shane, that I don’t know much about you.”

  “There’s nothing to know. “I was a perfect child, did excellently in school, and became a most mature adult.”

  “Really, Shane, tell me some real stuff.”

  “What I said was all true except the parts about the child, school, and adulthood.”

  “Shane I really want to know.”

  “All right: I’m an only child, my parents fought constantly but stayed together, and two of my teachers in school tried to seduce me. That’s the summary.”

  “You’re still putting me on.”

  “Just the part about my parents staying together wasn’t true.”

  “You mean that actually two of your teachers did do that?”

  “Yes, one woman and one man. The woman was my eighth grade teacher. She called me in after school for some extra work. I just didn’t know what kind of work it was. I did think it was strange because I was doing well in all my subjects. She had it all planned out. There was a smaller room connected to her larger classroom that she used for conferences and sometimes writing workshops when she would split the class. That afternoon I found out she had one other purpose for that room.

  “When I got there of course no one else was in the room. She smiled at me a couple of times, and then she said, ‘Why don’t we go into the conference room.’ Once there I saw the mattress on the floor and even some soft music playing, if you can believe that. She had two buttons to her blouse unbuttoned when I fled. Needless to say, the last two months of that school year was uncomfortable for me, but she never made another advance. She did keep smiling at me, though, and I always knew that all I had to do was say the word, and that afternoon we’d be on the mattress.”

  “Why did you reject her offer?”

  “Even though some people have thought to the contrary, I am human, and the whole thing did arouse me. You know those Viagra commercials about the erection lasting four hours—well, I had one that lasted two months. To this day, I still wonder what it would have been like. But it just seemed wrong to me. She wasn’t so much older than me; I had fantasized doing it with older woman maybe even from sixth grade on. But I guess it was because she was my teacher. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to teach me that.”

  “What about the man teacher situation?”

  “That was simply gross. The guy was my social studies teacher in my sophomore year in high school. One time I was taking a leak in the boy’s bathroom, and he came in to do the same. I don’t think he followed me in, but I got a little queasy when he was at the urinal next to mine and staring at what I had just pulled out. It wasn’t that it was big—it was just there, for the taking. And he took it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There was no one else in the bathroom; that’s why I think he hadn’t planned it. He couldn’t have known ahead of time that the room would contain only him and me. So anyway I had just finished peeing when he grabbed my bundle and said, “This could be fun.”

  “What did you do?”

  “There isn’t much you can do when a guy literally has you by the balls. I guess you’d have to say I was speechless. But thankfully he let go and unzipped himself to let his stream out. When he had started to unzip himself, I thought for an awful moment he was going to force me down to it. I wasn’t a very strong kid, and he was big. However, he nonchalantly went about peeing like just a few seconds earlier he hadn’t had my entire manhood in his grubby hand. Then he walked out like Mr. Pureheart. I’m not against gays, but he was just a sleazy guy—in future years I had no fantasy about him like I did with that woman teacher. It was amazing that no one walked in while he was holding me—that would have been the end of his career. He had been a teacher for over twenty years. It must be quite an obsession for some people if they would potentially give up their livelihood and maybe even something they value for a few illicit sex moments.”

  “You never told anyone about either incident?”

  “I practically ran out of that bathroom, in case he came back in, but no I didn’t turn him in, or the woman teacher either. I figured they had enough problems without their face being in the news for that kind of action. It was the last week of school when the bathroom incident occurred, and I had no more trouble from the guy. Maybe if he had continued to make advances I would have at least told my parents, that is, if I could interrupt their arguing. They divorced when I was a senior in high school. And there you have it, in a nutshell.”

  “Have you ever fallen in love with anyone?”

  “I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure, but I will say that you have suddenly made my life very interesting.” The subject was making Shane uncomfortable, and so he changed the topic. “What’ll happen if you catch this guy, Raven?”

  “We’ll drop him off at the next port and let the authorities there handle him. Then we can eventually extradite him back to Philadelphia. He may have committed other murders, but the ones in Philly are the only ones I can prove.”

  Then, for the first time Shane said some thoughts that were on both our minds.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have had sex. You said you had a boyfriend.”

  “I wasn’t lying—I do have a boyfriend.”

  “Will you tell him about me?”

  “I don’t know. I. . .” I stopped talking because who should now walk into the ice bar but David Selby. Even though his hood was pulled down over most of his face, I still knew his walk. When you live with someone for two years you can recognize them instantly.

  “Shane, there he is.” I buried my face into my own hooded jacket.

  “How can you tell? You can’t see his face.”

  “I just know.”

  David sat at the far end of the bar and didn’t seem to notice us at all. I felt I was close to the end of the line with David. I began to feel confident that at last I could get him.


  In the next hour David had two drinks and then got up to leave.

  “Let’s go get him, Shane.” What I should have said was “You stay here, Shane, and I’ll go get him.” But I didn’t have my gun, and David had kept escaping from me so much that I guess I felt I needed the backup. However, how much of a backup was Shane Brewster, anyway? Maybe having sex with him had given me too much confidence in him.

  We walked through the open archway into the night. The first bullet spun me around, and I went down. The next shot must have hit Shane because all I heard was an “Uggh,” and the sound of his body landing.

  Immediately when I hit the ground I rolled and rolled with bullets kicking up the soft snow around me. I quickly crawled behind a slight incline underneath an ice sculpture of a skater. I had a little protection.

  A voice came out of the darkness. “That Bozo you sent to follow me was pathetic. I made him right away. I knew he was watching me all the time. I was just waiting for you to make your move. It seems you’ve figured out what I’m going to do. Now I’m heading back to the ship to do my thing. Come and get me if you dare.”

  Was this another bluff? I waited and waited. Ten minutes went by. I could hear nothing but the wind. I finally moved up the hill. I was glad that Shane also had laid low. I repeated what I had said in the bar. “Come on Shane, let’s go get him.” The wind was my only answer.

  “Shane? Shane!”

  I found him ten feet away, face down. I rolled him over. There was a bullet hole right through one eye. David had claimed another victim. Shane would not see any more of Iceland, and he would never love. I think this was the saddest I’ve every felt in my life, but I didn’t have the luxury of standing there and continuing to feel it. 250 people’s lives were at stake.

  David’s first bullet had cut into my shoulder, but the cold air seemed to have cauterized it. But I wasn’t kidding myself—I was still bleeding, and unless I could get medical attention I wasn’t going to survive. However, that attention was going to have to come later.

  I didn’t know if David had only seen Shane observing him in the gym and had not noticed him following him to his condo. What was that number again? Yes—414. That’s where I was headed.

  As I came back to the port, my watch told me I had about twenty minutes before the ship was scheduled to leave. I reasoned that David would not blow up the ship until we got more out to sea, so he could insure no rescue. I might still have a little time. My shoulder was beginning to hurt like hell, but I didn’t care. I had to stop this crazy person.

  Ten minutes later I was approaching Condo 414. The door to it was ajar. Maybe David was again waiting for me. He had constantly been a step ahead of me.

  I didn’t go charging into the room. Instead, I slid into a small alcove in the hallway where some soda machines were located. And I didn’t have long to wait. David hurried out of his condo and into an elevator across the hall from his door. He probably still had his gun so I couldn’t try to attack him in such a small enclosed space.

  I waited and saw by the numbers over the elevator that David had stopped on the main deck. I got myself mentally ready for the showdown.

  A minute later I pushed the “Open” button to the elevator and plastered myself against the side wall, but there were no shots. I peered out the door, and there was David by the railing with something in his hand. He seemed to be setting some dials. He was too engrossed in what he was doing to notice me. I felt like I had only a matter of seconds. I took four running steps and leaped through the air. I hit David right below the hips sending him to the deck. Whatever had been in his hand skittered away. I tried to see what it was. It looked like a miniature detonator.

  David began to crawl after it, and he got to it before I did. But I was on my feet and running to where he had picked up the mechanism. I knew if he pressed the button, it was all over. He was crouched and now turning the object to the business side. I wouldn’t be able to grab it from him before he pressed down. All I had left was my foot, and I aimed a kick at that piece of plastic as if it were overtime in the Super Bowl.

  My toe connected with the item and I sent it spiraling over the railing into the ocean. If there had been a referee watching he would have raised both arms high to signal a score.

  Still in his crouch, David swore a string of curses and grabbed my legs. Like the vicious animal he had become, he bit into my ankle sending a stream of awful pain up my back. I fell on top of him, and we tumbled toward the open railway. It was my only chance. With a mighty shove I took one more roll, and we both began to tumble toward the ocean. The ship had already started toward the open sea. Looking down I could see the froth of the mighty waves.

  David began to fall away from me. He tried to grab at me, but his hand slid off my shiny jacket. He gave a scream and plummeted toward the water. He hit with no other sound from him.

  I also was falling, but I had grabbed the top of the railing and hung on. I had only three fingers clenched onto that railing, and I was losing my grip. But I wasn’t going to let myself fall. I gradually pulled myself up, and grabbed the railing now with my other hand. I almost lost my grip again because my wounded shoulder spit pain into my brain. I felt like my arm was completely being torn off. I felt faint. But I told myself all I had to do was one chin-up just like in high school gym class.

  I did it, and rolled back onto the deck. I just lay there, breathing hard.

  My first three cases were finally finished.

  EPILOGUE

  David Selby was now gone from me permanently.

  The ship calling itself The World continued on its global journey with now one condo available for new occupancy.

  Shane’s death was a terrible tragedy, and I did feel responsible for it. However, 250 lives were also saved. Shane did get a thrill being able to participate in the chase, but his life was cut too short. Protection, or adventure—each day we make that choice, and sometimes there’s a grave penalty for what we decide.

  I still haven’t told Phil about my involvement with Shane. I don’t know if I’ll ever tell him. I think I’ll have to figure out how I feel about the Petrosky man.

  Why was life sometimes so difficult? Maybe so that we could keep on living and solve some of its problems.

  I wanted to keep living and see what happens.