Love Can Be Murder

mind except a numbing sleep, she pulled back the comforter and the cotton quilt, stopping when she saw a small, dark object against the white of her pillowcase.
    Leaning closer, recognition barbed through her—it was the little red Hot Wheels car that had been attached to the hand of the voodoo doll she had received at the party. When she'd stabbed the doll, the car had come loose and smashed to the floor, crumpling the front end. She'd lost track of what had happened to the toy, but apparently someone at the party had thought it important enough to keep—the person who had given her the doll?
    Her pulse thumped in fear. Was it a message? A promise? A threat? She considered calling B.J., but Guy's response when she told him how she'd met B.J. came back to her.
    Kind of coincidental, don't you think? Was B.J. somehow more involved in this situation than she realized? Than she wanted to believe?
    She rushed back to the door, prepared to go...where? To B.J.? To the police? Who could she trust?
    She jammed chairs under the knobs of both doors, then, too weary to think, Penny slipped off her shoes and crawled under the covers fully dressed. She buried herself as deeply into the mattress as she could. Every muscle ached, every nerve ending screamed. She didn't even have the energy to cry or to be afraid. Her eyes fluttered shut to the tune of drums and feet pounding out in the square. Evil was in the air....
    She was in the peristil , watching the masked priest dance around...except she was watching from a cage...she was a chicken...waiting to have her head removed...to be sacrificed to the celebrated lwa in order for the tribe to remain in good favor...the priest danced all around her cage...she could feel the vibration of the drums...the shimmy of the ason full of snake bones... he came closer and closer to her cage...she was paralyzed with fear... he ripped off his skeletal mask and it was Deke... he looked an gry... you were too good for me, Penny...
    She jerked awake and blinked gratefully at the daylight streaming through the windows. The priest...Deke...she'd been dreaming for long, gluey hours, her nightmares going in circles, bizarre enough to disturb her, familiar enough to frighten her. She sighed and waited for the dredges of the anxiety to dissipate. But when it did, she was left with the profound ache of realization that Deke was gone...murdered. She had thought she'd known what being alone was when they had first separated. But then the aloneness of being separated had been topped by the aloneness of being divorced. And now the aloneness of being divorced had been trumped by the aloneness of being survived in death.
    You were too good for me, Penny...
    She closed her eyes and conjured up the image of Deke's face, the exact intonation of his voice when he had uttered those words...the last words he would ever speak to her...as if he'd been trying to make amends.
    Her eyes popped open. Had Deke known then that he was in trouble? Had he feared for his life? Is that why he had said those words to her at such a bizarre place and time?
    She sat up, then grimaced when an ache erupted in her head. Her face felt slick and crackly...glazed. It was the hot sugar from Benny's that had somehow made its way into the ductwork and her apartment. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, still woozy from a long, troubled sleep. One look over the neat bedroom brought back the chilling events of the night before. Someone had broken into her apartment to...clean.
    And to leave the little Hot Wheels car, she recalled, staring at it sitting next to her lamp. She pondered calling the police, having them dust for prints, but what if it had only been Jimmy and what if they questioned him and he told them about her pushing Sheena into the street?
    She stumbled to the bathroom for aspirin, only to be faced with more orderliness—her medicine cabinet, her vanity. The thought of Jimmy Scaggs handling her birth control pills and her toothbrush made her skin crawl.
    Was it possible that Jimmy was more than just a little skewed? Could he be behind the women who had been reported missing in the area? Did he happen upon them, offer them a ride, take them back to his cabin in the woods of which no one seemed to know the exact location?
    She tossed back three aspirin with a glass of water. It was close to noon. She had slept for...fifteen hours? Was that possible? Her head felt fuzzy from the pain, and she thought a shower would help