Kiss the Girls

at her chest and shot her.
    She tried to keep standing, willed herself to stay up, but her body didn’t work anymore, and she slumped to the floor.
    He was going crazy now. She stared at him in muted horror as he raised his boot and began to kick out at her. A
tooth
spun in slow motion, spun over and over on its trail across the wooden floor.
    The revolving tooth fascinated her. It took her a moment to realize that it was
her tooth.
    She could taste blood, and feel her lips swelling.
    There was a hollow ringing in Kate’s ears, and she knew she was slipping into unconsciousness. She clung to what she had seen behind the mask.
    Casanova knew she had seen a part of his face.
    A smooth pink cheek; no beard or mustache visible.
    His left eye—
blue.

Chapter 35

    N AOMI CROSS was trembling as she pressed herself hard against the bolted door that sealed off her room. Somewhere in the house of horror a woman was screaming.
    The sound was muffled by the walls, by the soundproofing he’d built into the house, but it was still terrifying. Naomi realized that she was biting down on her hand. Hard. She felt sure he was killing someone. It wouldn’t be the first time.
    The screams stopped.
    Naomi pressed harder against the door, straining to hear some sound.
    “Oh, no, please,” she whispered, “don’t let her be dead.”
    Naomi listened to the electric silence for a long time. Finally, she moved away from the door. There was nothing she could do for the poor woman. Nothing anyone could do.
    Naomi knew she had to be very good right now. If she broke any of his rules, he would beat her. She couldn’t let that happen.
    He seemed to know everything about her. What clothes she liked to wear, all her underwear sizes, her favorite colors, even the shades she preferred. He knew about Alex, and Seth Samuel, and even about her friend Mary Ellen Klouk. “The tall, pretty blond thing,” he called her.
Thing.
    Casanova was very kinky; he was into playacting and fantasy psychodramas. He loved to talk to her about pornographic acts: sex with prepubescent girls and animals; nightmarish sadism; masochism; gynecocracy; enema torture. He talked about everything so casually. At times he would even be poetic, in a sick way. He quoted from Jean Genet, John Rechy, Durrell, de Sade. He was well read, probably well educated.
    “You’re smart enough to understand me when I talk,” he had told Naomi on one of his visits. “That’s why I picked you, sweet darling.”
    Naomi was startled by the sound of more screaming. She ran to the door and placed her cheek against the cool thick wood.
Was it the same woman, or was he killing someone else?
she wondered.
    “Somebody please help me!” she heard. The woman was screaming at the top of her voice. She was breaking the house rules.
    “Somebody help! I’m being held captive in here. Somebody help… my name is Kate… Kate McTiernan. Somebody help!”
    Naomi shut her eyes. This was so bad. The woman had to stop. But over and over again the calls for help were repeated. That meant Casanova wasn’t in the house. He must have gone out.
    “Somebody please help me. My name is Kate McTiernan. I’m a doctor from the University of North Carolina hospital.” The screams continued… ten times, twenty times. Not in panic, Naomi began to realize. In rage!
    He couldn’t be in the house.
He wouldn’t let her go on this long. Naomi finally summoned up her courage and shouted as loud as she could. “
Stop
it! You must
stop
calling for help. He’ll kill you! Shut up!
That’s all I’m going to say!
”
    There was silence… blessed silence, finally. Naomi thought she could
hear
the tension all around her. She certainly
felt
it.
    Kate McTiernan didn’t stop for long. “What’s your name? How long have you been here? Please, talk to me… hey, I’m talking to
you!
” she shouted.
    Naomi wouln’t answer her. What was wrong with the woman? Had she lost it after the last beating?
    Kate McTiernan called out again. “Listen, we can help each other. I’m sure we can. Do you know where you’re being kept?”
    The woman was definitely brave… but she was being foolish, too. Her voice was strong, but it was beginning to sound hoarse.
Kate.
    “Please talk to me. He isn’t here now, or he would have come with his stun gun.
You know I’m right!
He won’t know if you talk to me. Please… I have to hear your voice again.
    Please. For two minutes. That’s all. I promise you.
Two minutes.
Please.