Subj: Strangers on a Train chapter two- the first reading
Date: 11/25/00 1:17:43 AM Central Standard Time
From: Melissa
The First Reading or "Don't Let it Bring You Down."
Peter Bradford walked up the steps of the Boston Courthouse. Boston wasn't what he expected it to be at all.
Today was his first day working for Hickman, Burnham, and Kingsley, and he was trying his first case. It wouldn't be a hard case to win either.
Peter made his way inside the courthouse, and went about looking for the courtroom.
"Peter!?" a voice called out from behind him. He turned and saw a very familiar face.
"Well if it isn't Maggie Evans," he said. Maggie pulled him into her arms.
"What are you doing here," she asked, pulling away taking a good look at him.
"I live here now, I'm here for a case. I work for Hickman, Burnham, and Kingsley, now."
"That's great. How do you like it?"
"Well it's my first case, but the firms great. What are you doing here?"
"Getting a marriage license."
"You and Joe are finally getting married?"
"Yes," Maggie pulled out a pack of cigarettes, she offered one to Peter, who shook his head, she lit one and inhaled the smoke, "Joe will kill me if he catches me smoking. So, have you seen Victoria lately?" Maggie asked.
"No, not since she called off the wedding," Peter told her.
"So, what's new," Maggie asked after a moment.
"I went to France after I left, and I just got married."
"You what? You're married! Wow that's great!" Maggie said surprised.
"Maggie," a voice called out from behind them, Maggie threw the cigarette down and stepped on it.
"Joe, there you are. Look who I found."
"Peter, great to see you, where've you been?"
"Joe, Peter's married."
"Really, when was this?"
"Three months ago, we met in France."
"That's great," Joe said shaking Peter's hand. "Maggie we better go, we don't want to be late. I hope we see you again soon."
"Maybe we could have dinner sometime, you could meet Claire."
"Sounds great, doesn't it Joe?" Maggie asked.
"Yeah," he said a little agitated. "It's getting kind of late Maggie we better get going."
"What time is it?" she asked.
"It's ten minutes to twelve," Peter said looking at his watch.
"Your right Joe we better go, Peter we'll see you soon," Maggie said as she and Joe walked off.
After winning the case he went back to the offices, where everyone congratulated him. It made him feel good that his bosses saw what a good job he had done, he hadn't known that they were watching him.
"Why don't you go home to that beautiful wife of yours," Ted said patting Peter on the shoulder.
Peter walked up the path to his new house. Claire was making truly a home; she had planted all sorts of flowers and other plants. When he walked into the house he found her hanging up the new curtains in the kitchen.
"Peter your home early," she said, her accent making her even more charming, than she already was with her overalls and T-shirt.
"Ted told me to go home when I got back to the office after the case," he said helping her down from the latter.
"Your case, I forgot about it," she exclaimed. "Did you win?"
"Yes," he said.
She jumped into his arms, "I'm so proud of you," she cried excitedly. Peter set her on the ground and brushed the few strands of blonde hair that had fallen from her ponytail. "Dinner won't be ready for awhile," she said smiling at him.
"Well I suppose we could find something to do until dinner," Peter said taking her hand.
The scent of something burning brought the two lovers out of the bedroom, Peter pulled out the burnt remains of what would have been their dinner, Claire looked solemnly at it, then burst out laughing. Peter looked up at her then began laughing as well.
Maggie Evans watched from her car as the lights went off in the house. She had been watching the house and the occupants for weeks; she saw everything that went on in that house.
A month later Peter woke up, he felt as if he hadn't got any sleep at all. At work he tried to get his paper work done, but his thoughts kept going back to Claire, and how she felt. He left work later than he would have liked, when he got home the lights were off, there seemed to be no one home.
"Claire?" he called, there was no answer.
He went into the kitchen; there was a note on the refrigerator. It said: Peter, I ran into an old friend at the mall today, can you believe it. It's been years since we've seen each other, she asked me if I could have dinner with her, and I couldn't refuse, she is going back to France in two days. Don't wait up too late for me, you have a busy day tomorrow. I love you, Claire
He opened the refrigerator and took out some things to make a sandwich. While he ate it he watched some TV, his eye always on the clock.
When it turned 12:30 and she still wasn't home, he slowly went to the bedroom, and got ready for bed.
When he woke up the next morning he found Claire lying beside him. He rose quietly and went into the bathroom to shave.
"Good morning," Claire said cheerfully, standing in the doorway.
"Morning," he said, "When did you get in?"
"It was almost two, I'm sorry I didn't think I would be out that late, you didn't stay up long did you?"
"No not really," Peter said at little annoyed.
"Do you mind if I watch you shave," she asked grinning at him, trying to get him forgive her.
"Not at all," he said giving into her. He lost his grip on the razor because he was looking at his beautiful wife in the mirror, wearing nothing, but one of his white T-shirts. He tried to catch the razor and cut his finger.
"Damn it," he exclaimed.
"Peter are you okay," Claire asked hurrying to his side.
"Yeah it's just a little cut, nothing to worry about," he said reassuringly.
"Here let me," she said taking his hand and brought his finger to her lips, she kissed it softly, then sucked the blood away.
Peter left the house, what had happened in there, he had never seem her like that before. When she looked up at him when he took his finger away, there was a look in her eyes. She begged him to make love to her, he found that he couldn't refuse her. Now he was late for work.
When he got to the office, he went into his office and got to work on a brief that was due. He didn't get a chance to read the paper until lunch, which he had to have late.
3rd victim found, serial killer suspected.
Peter hadn't heard anything about this at all, he went back to the other papers and found the articles about the other victims.
All three were found in alleys and the blood was drained from all of the victims. He looked at the dates of the paper, he noticed that all the victims were killed on nights that Claire was out late with friends.
That's an odd coincidence, he thought to himself.
"Peter there's a Maggie Haskell to see you," June said.
"Thanks show her in," Peter said. "Hi Maggie what can I do for you?" Peter asked when she came into his office.
"Hi Peter, I was just wondering how you and your wife were doing."
"We fine, thanks," Peter said, "When was the wedding?"
"We went to the justice of the peace," Maggie said.
"Congratulations," Peter said, "Hey why don't you and Joe come over for dinner tomorrow night, it's the perfect time for you two to meet Claire."
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Maggie said.
"No trouble at all," Peter reassured her.
When Maggie left Peter called home; there was no answer, so he left her a message. Where was she? He thought to himself.
Maggie walked out of the offices and looked up at Peter's window, she smiled strangely and walked off.
"Honey, where were you this afternoon," Peter asked when he got home that night.
"I was out in the garden," Claire said smiling at him.
"It's okay that I invited Maggie and Joe for dinner?"
"Yes, it will be good to have company," she said bringing the salad to the table.
When Peter came home the next evening he found Claire preparing the dinner.
"What are you making?" he asked.
"Stakes, I hope that's okay," she said.
"That's fine, why don't you go get ready they'll be here soon. I'll take care of what ever needs to be done," He said.
"Thank you, all you have to do is watch the vegetable," she said giving him a quick kiss, then disappearing to their bedroom.
Dinner was perfect; Claire and Maggie hit it off, and were talking as if they had known each other for years. The only thing that was odd about the evening was that Claire had made the stakes so rare, but Joe and Maggie seemed to love them.
The following weeks three more bodies were found all drained of blood and no witness or clues for the police to lead them to a suspect. But Peter was growing more and more suspicious of Claire; she would leave late at night, and didn't return until it was almost dawn.
He decided that he would go to the doctor that was studying the victim's bodies, maybe he could help him.
"Who do you think is doing all this," Peter asked.
"Do you really want to hear my theory?" asked Dr. Ellroy.
"Yes," said Peter.
"I think it was done by a vampire."
"A vampire?" Peter asked incredulously.
"I know you don't believe in such things, but I've seem many things that I could never begin to explain to you."
"How would you know if a person is a vampire?" Peter asked after awhile.
"Well you could look to the myths, but those aren't always truthful." Dr. Ellroy pulled a book off his shelf and showed a page to Peter.
"Arthur, I think that my wife maybe a vampire," Peter said slowly. Peter then described the things that had been happening. "I always thought that they couldn't go out in the sunlight," Peter said.
"That's one of the myths, I think that they just need to be covered well enough, sunglasses, a hat, just as long as they aren't exposed to the sun directly."
"What should I do?" Peter asked.
"You have to find out if she really is a vampire, then if she is you must destroy, it's the only way."
When Peter got home, he tried to act if nothing was wrong. He was sure that Claire suspected something, but she acted like she always did. After dinner they watched a movie that she checked out earlier in the day. Peter couldn't concentrate on; he dreaded what he might have to do.
They went to bed and Peter lay there waiting for Claire to leave and prove to him that she was really what Dr. Ellroy said must be killing all those people. She fell asleep, when he looked over at her he was relieved. He settled back and fell asleep, but something woke him. When he looked over to her side of the bed, she was gone. It was three hours until dawn.
Where did she go, how long had she been gone? He lay still wondering what he should do. Suddenly he heard a noise from the stairs. He closed his eyes, just enough to make it seem like he was still asleep. Claire came back into the room, and climbed into the bed. She looked over at Peter and kissed him softly and lay back onto the pillows and fell asleep.
Peter opened his eyes, tears flowed down his cheeks, not his Claire, he didn't want to believe it, but this was the proof, she was a vampire. He got out of the bed and pulled out the stake that he had hidden under the bed.
He pulled back the quilt that Claire had pulled around her, and raised the stake up above his head and drove it into her chest.
It was the screams that woke the neighbors; they were the ones that called the police.
They brought along Dr. Ellroy. When they walked into the bedroom, blood was splattered everywhere. Peter was sitting in a chair beside the bed where the body of his wife still lay.
"What happened," Police Chief Harker asked in horror.
"My wife. . . she's a vampire," he said shakily.
"You think you're wife was a vampire," Detective Somerset said questioningly.
"Yes, I talked to Dr. Ellroy, and he told me that this was how to do kill them. She's the one who's been killing all those people in town.
"Is this true Doc," Harker asked turning to the Doctor.
"No, I haven't spoken to this man before, all I know about him is that he's a lawyer," the doctor replied.
"Come on sir, we have to take you down to the station," said Detective Somerset.
Peter couldn't believe what was happening, they lead him out of the house and to their car. Another officer ran out.
"What do you have there?" asked Harker.
"A movie, we wouldn't want him to have to explain why he didn't return the movie."
Maggie watched as they carried the body out of the house. She turned away and smiled. In the moonlight her teeth glistened. Her fangs descended.
"There isn't room for three vampires in this town," she said to herself as she got into her car, Joe looked over at her and smiled his teeth glistened.
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Back in the train. . .
Everyone was deathly quiet. Peter looked up at Dr. Schrek, "You saw all that in those cards?"
Dr. Schrek nodded. "What about the fifth card," Burke asked.
Dr. Schrek turned the card over so only he could see it. Then he put the card in the middle of the deck.
"What was it?" Peter asked.
"It was nothing," he replied.
"Are you married?" Angèlique asked.
"I am planning on asking. . . Claire, when I get back to England next week," he said slowly.
"Dr. Schrek would you do my reading," Angèlique asked after a long silence.
Julia shook her head and returned to her book.
Dr. Schrek held out the cards, and she tapped them as Peter had done before her. Dr. Schrek flipped over four cards over and began to read them.
To be continued. . .