Anna's Visions (20 page)

Tori refilled the glass, unable to add any pills
because he was staring at her with ferocity unlike anything she’d ever seen.

He looked up at the clock and said, “Eight minutes,
ladies. Then we’ll have some fun. Meanwhile, give me another one, you redheaded
bitch.”

Tori refused to look at the clock. She wasn’t about to
play his sick game. If he were going to kill her, he’d have to do it while she
was looking straight into his eyes. Although she tried hard not to show it, her
heart was beating so hard she thought it would explode.

Cody bugged his eyes as if he were a child making an
ugly face at a classmate.
“More whiskey!”

Tori filled the shot glass, but Cody’s hand fell
sideways before he grabbed it. Then his head slowly began to sag until it hit
the tabletop with a thud. His right hand slid from the table – then Tori heard
the gun hit the floor.

For a long moment, Tori and Jill just sat looking at
each other, too terrified to move, but when Cody failed to stir, Tori finally
slid out of her chair, picked up the gun, and motioned her head toward the
door.

Tori and Jill slowly moved around the table, and Tori
stood beside Cody, the gun close to his temple, and whispered, “Get the keys
out of his pocket and unlock the deadbolt on the door. Then go get the bags.”

Jill nodded and eased her hand into his pant pocket,
and pulled it back out with the keys. She unlocked the door, and then headed
toward the bedroom.

Tori closely watched Cody. He didn’t seem to be
breathing. It took all the courage she could muster, but she gently touched his
neck, feeling for the carotid artery. She didn’t feel a pulse. She gathered
more courage and placed her hand on his back in the lung area. No movement. She
held her hand under his nose. He wasn’t breathing
.

Tori jumped as Jill came back into the kitchen and
whispered, “I’ve got everything. Come on, Tori. Let’s go!”

One more thing,” Tori whispered. “Before we leave, go
into the master bedroom and call Grammy. Don’t give her any details. Just tell
her we’re on our way home – and make it quick!”

As Jill ran down the hallway, Tori remained at Cody’s
side, gun pointed to his head, ready in case he came to and decided to charge
her, although she had no idea what she’d do if he did. The gun was getting
heavier and Jill seemed to be taking forever to make a simple phone call.

Finally, Jill came back into the kitchen and
whispered, “Tori, Grammy says she had a vision last night, and we’re supposed
to find a tin box – the kind people keep petty cash in. She says it’s in a
small, dark room.”

“What?” Tori asked, “That’s nuts! Let’s just get out
of here.”

“We can’t,” Jill said. “Grammy says it’s important.
She says the box holds information that we need to know, and she said don’t
leave until we find it.”

“Oh, Grammy,” Tori said with a sigh.
“You and your visions.
There’s no small, dark room here.”
Then a thought occurred to her. “Wait a minute! There’s a small closet in the
hallway that I’ve never opened before because he keeps it locked. I think Cody
keeps his hunting gear in it. Maybe the box is in there, but I really don’t see
how that could be important to us. The important thing is for us to get out of
her now!”

“Tori, if Grammy says it’s important, then we need to
look for it.”

“Okay,” Tori said, her hand trembling, the gun seeming
to gain a pound by the second. “You’ve got the keys. Go open it.”

Again, Jill disappeared, leaving Tori with Cody’s
lifeless body.

Finally, Jill returned, whispering, “I found it, Tori!
Here it is. Now let's get out of here!”

Tori slowly backed away from the table and headed
toward the door, keeping the gun pointed in Cody’s direction. “Okay, I’ll stand
guard here while you take the bags downstairs. As soon as you’re done, let me
know. Got it?”

“Got it.”
Jill grabbed two bags and raced out the door.

When Jill came back, she picked up the tin box while
Tori stuck the gun into her purse, grabbed the last bag, and followed Jill
downstairs.

They jumped into the red Pinto. “Go, Jill, go!” Tori
yelled, looking over her shoulder toward Emma’s apartment. “Emma’s car is gone.
She must have made her morning run to the donut shop,” she said, wiping sweat
from her top lip. “Thank goodness! That means there were no witnesses.”

“I hope I remember which way I came. It was dark when
I got here last night. Things look different. Help me, Tori,” Jill said when
she came to the front entrance of the apartment complex.

“Take a right. I can guide you from there.” Tori’s
mind had always been fuzzy when Emma took her out and drove around, but Tori
thought she could figure out which way to go. She had to.

Three blocks up the street, Jill stopped for a red
light. She looked into the rearview mirror and heaved a sigh. “He’s not behind
us. And what do you mean no witnesses?”

Tori tucked her head and said, “He’s not behind us
because he’s dead.” When the words came out of her mouth she felt as if her
heart skipped a beat.

“Dead!”
Jill shrieked. “What do you mean dead?”

“Dead as in not alive, Jill. The whiskey and pills
mixed was an OD.” Tears ran down Tori’s face.
“Oh, God!
I’m a murderer!” she cried.

Jill’s eyes widened.
“Oh my God!
What have we gotten ourselves into? If you’re guilty of murder, that means I’m
an accomplice. Are you sure he was dead?”

“He had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing!” Tori
sighed. “The man is dead!”

Jill looked at Tori briefly, and then patted her arm.
“But he was definitely going to kill us, right? That means it was
self-defense.” Her tone softened, as if trying to convince herself. “It was
self-defense. We’re not murderers!” She paused a second. “But shouldn’t we tell
somebody?”

“Tell them what?” Tori said. “That the guy was going
to shoot us so I tricked him into OD’ing on whiskey and pills?”

Jill wiped her tears from her cheek. “We’re definitely
not murderers, but it’s not going to look good when he’s found.”

“Emma will find him. There won’t be any sign of a
break-in or scuffle, and I’ve all of a sudden skipped town. It’s going to look
bad for sure,” Tori said. Then she thought about Emma. Emma had tried to be a
good friend to Tori and Tori knew that she probably wouldn’t have lasted as
long as she had without her. Tori felt bad that Emma would be the one who
discovered Cody’s body and would have to report his death to the police.

Jill came to a four-way stop. “I don’t remember this.
But I’m lucky I remember my name after what we’ve been through.” Before Tori
could answer, Jill suddenly yelled, “Look! There’s the sign for I-75! Now we
can start putting some distance between us and that beast!”

“And the sooner the better,” Tori said. Then a
horrifying thought ran through her mind. “The police will come looking for me.
I’m going to get the electric chair! I’m going to hell! I’m going to fry. Oh,
double cow crap! How am I going to get out of this?”

Once they were barreling down the highway, Jill said,
“This is no time for your dramatics, Tori. I’ll tell you what you’re going to
do. You’re going to keep your head straight and your mouth shut! Now here’s our
story. The last time we saw Cody he was waving goodbye and he was telling us to
have a safe trip. Whatever happened to him after we left is anybody’s guess!
Got it?”

Tori looked at Jill in astonishment. Jill was right.
And for the first time in their lives Jill was in control and telling Tori what
was what. “Okay, I got it!” Tori said. “And when Emma finds Cody’s body, the
only thing she’ll know is that he has a wife named Tori. She doesn’t know my
maiden name, she doesn’t know where I came from, and I never mentioned your
name either – I don’t think.” Tori drew in a deep breath, exhaled, and yelled,
“Put the pedal to the medal!”

Jill pushed the old Pinto as fast as she dared,
looking into the rear view mirror from time to time. “Nobody is chasing us,
yet. And that’s good. This pile of junk couldn’t out run a go-cart.”

They laughed, but it was a nervous laugh.

The miles rolled by in silence as the events of the
past few hours sunk in. Jill finally spoke up. “You know what, Tori? Now I know
what it’s like to look into the eyes of pure evil. I’ve never been that scared
in my entire life.”

“I know – but not even I knew how evil he was until he
pointed that gun at us. He was going to blow our brains out – and not think
twice about it!” Tori trembled at the thought. “He was the devil incarnated.”

“Yes, he was. We’re alive because of your quick
thinking. I didn’t know what to do. I guess I was too busy preparing to say
hello to Jesus.”

Tori blew a hard breath and wiped her upper lip. Her
mind began to calm down and she asked the question she wanted to ask from the
moment Jill had appeared at her front door.

“Jill, how in the world did you find me? Dang, I
didn’t even know my address. All I knew was that I was in Atlanta!”

Jill gave Tori a momentary glance, and then replied,
“A lot of what I’m going to tell you will be hard for me to get through, so
bear with me, okay?”

Tori swallowed hard. “Okay.” Tears began to well in
spite of her trying to buck up and take what was coming.

“Grammy told all of us that you had called her but
didn’t talk long enough for her to get all the information she wanted – but
somehow she knew you were being held against your will. Luckily, you left us a
clue that day you came home for your stuff – and I must say that it was pretty
clever.”

“What are you talking about?” Tori asked.

Jill smiled and playfully punched Tori’s arm. “Stop
acting so innocent. You slipped your clutch bag under your bed – barely out of
sight. Don’t tell me you forgot.”

A tear rolled down Tori’s cheek. “I barely remember
coming home – I’ll explain that part later. But how did my clutch bag give you
a clue, other than letting you know that I’d been home?”

Jill stared into Tori’s teary eyes. “Well, it went
like this. I was looking for my blue sweater you borrowed last year and never
brought back, so I went over to your house and asked Mona and Ed if I could
look for it in your closet.”

“I remember the sweater. Go on,”

“So I went upstairs, found my sweater in your closet,
and when I tried to pull it off the hanger, it was stuck. When I yanked on it,
it came loose, and fell to the floor. When I bent down to pick it up, I saw
something out of the corner of my eye at the foot of your bed.” Jill cleared
her throat.

“So I dragged it out, and it was your clutch bag! The
bag was open and I found a white envelope inside. When I looked at the
envelope, there it was – name and address.”

“Oh, now, I remember,” Tori said. “An envelope fell
into my lap when we left the apartment complex. I picked it up and I thought I
stuffed it between the seats, but instead I stuck in inside my clutch. Talk
about divine intervention! Grammy would say that the angels guided that
envelope into my bag and on to your hands.”

“I think Grammy is right. You can call it a miracle
because that’s what it felt like at the time,” said Jill, gently reaching over
and patting Tori’s arm. “But I need to back up a minute. When I was looking
through your closet, Mona yelled up the stairs to me that she and Ed were going
to meet my parents for dinner.”

“My poor parents and grandparents,” Tori shook her
head and wiped her tears. “They must be crazy by now.”

“I yelled out to them that I’d found a name and
address, but by the time I got downstairs, your parents were already gone. I
didn’t know what restaurant they were going to, so I couldn’t call them and let
them know about it. I just ran home, grabbed my purse, and headed out the
door.”

“You mean you didn’t even call Grammy?” It horrified
Tori to think that Grammy had been losing her mind until Jill called just
before their get-a-way.

“I’m getting to that. Just as I grabbed my keys off
the kitchen table, the phone rang. It was Grammy telling me she’d had a vision
about an envelope with the initials CB on it. She thought you had sent her a
letter, but when she checked her mailbox, she was wrong.”

“God bless Grammy and her visions,” Tori said with a
smile. “But she wasn’t wrong – well, not completely.”

“Will you let me finish?
Geeze!”
Jill rolled her eyes. “I told Grammy about the envelope and that I was on my
way to get you. She wished me God’s speed. Then I was off.”

Tori pulled a tissue from her purse and wiped her nose
and eyes. “Why wasn’t anybody there when I came home that day? Didn’t Grammy
tell my parents and you? That doesn’t make sense.”

“You didn’t tell Grammy when you were coming; you just
said you were coming home. And she said she didn’t understand half of the rest
of what you were trying to tell her.”

Tori tucked her head. “Yeah, I know I wasn’t making
much sense to her. Go on with the story.”