Almost Dead

CHAPTER 38

 

Jenny stayed inside her car until she heard the garage door clank shut. Then she climbed out and hurried inside the house.

 

Once she was in her bedroom, she flung off her sunglasses. The curly red wig came off next. Her heart raced as she wrapped the wig in tissue paper and then placed it with the others inside the bottom drawer.

 

That was a close one.

 

“You worry too much.”

 

She pulled off the ugly dress she’d worn and then removed twenty pounds of padding underneath. It felt good to remove all that extra weight.

 

There were probably security cameras all over the place.

 

“It doesn’t matter. I parked far enough away. Nobody would have paid me any mind at that point. And this won’t be the first time I was caught on video. Nobody will recognize me.”

 

What about the tray you dropped in the garbage?

 

“It was disposable, and I wore plastic gloves.”

 

You’re going to get caught for sure this time.

 

She slipped into a terry cloth robe and tied the sash around her waist. “I’m tired of your constant jabbering. I’m not going to listen to you.”

 

You haven’t scrubbed the kitchen sink in days. Those tiny organisms are on everything. I saw them with my own eyes. They cause disease.

 

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I’m done listening to your endless tirades. You need to back off. I mean it.”

 

Silence. Finally.

 

She used baby oil to take off a layer of thick makeup, then turned on the bathwater before making her way to the living room and turning on the television. It was the same on every local new station: five people dead, one in critical condition. She wasn’t worried. She’d seen Mindy Graft eat the brownie in two quick bites. She wouldn’t be dead, none of them would be, if they mixed things up every once in a while. They all trundled around along their little tracks. Same routine, day in and day out. Mindy Graft hit the grocery store every Saturday, rain or shine. And today had been no different.

 

Jenny hadn’t meant to, or at least hadn’t wanted to, kill innocent people who were not on her list, but she’d known in this case that it couldn’t be helped. After watching Mindy pull up to the store and park her car, Jenny had grabbed the tray of brownies and hurried to the entrance. Even after she had Mindy in her sights, she’d waited, not uncovering her tray until Mindy was within ten feet of her. Within the blink of an eye, the people walking into the store had become scavengers. Jenny had been forced to shoo away a couple of people just to save a brownie for Mindy. It was as if they’d never eaten before.

 

Leaving the television on, she made her way to the bathroom and turned off the water. Then she went to her office and pulled out the kill list. Using a fine-tip marker, she drew a line through Mindy Graft’s name.

 

She wanted to call Lizzy, find out if Mindy had been warned before she took a brownie from a stranger. But Jenny didn’t have time for unnecessary chitchat at the moment—she was going on a date with Dwayne Roth. He’d told her that he’d noticed her from the start, since she’d first started working at Ecco Chemicals.

 

With a smile on her face, she headed back for the tub, slipped out of her robe, and climbed into the hot water, letting her mind drift to thoughts of sun-kissed beaches; blue, cloudless skies; and Dwayne.