13 Nasty Endings: A Compilation of Short Stories Read online

  13

  Nasty

  Endings

  13 Nasty Endings

  Copyright © 2010, 2012, by Thomas M Malafarina.

  Cover Image Copyright © 2010, by Alecia Nye.

  Cover Copyright © 2010 Sunbury Press.

  NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information contact Sunbury Press, Inc., Subsidiary Rights Dept., 2200 Market St., Camp Hill, PA 17011 USA or [email protected].

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Sunbury Press, Inc. Wholesale Dept. at (717) 254-7274 or [email protected].

  To request one of our authors for speaking engagements or book signings, please contact Sunbury Press, Inc. Publicity Dept. at [email protected].

  THIRD SUNBURY PRESS EDITION

  Printed in the United States of America

  February 2012

  ISBN 978-1-934597-27-9

  Published by:

  Sunbury Press

  Camp Hill, PA

  www.sunburypress.com

  Camp Hill, Pennsylvania USA

  Dedication

  For our three fantastic grown kids, Michael, Marla and Alex, who put up with my enjoyment of horror through the years, and who are probably grateful that Mom read them bedtime stories.

  For Eternity

  Sandra sat looking at herself in the hotel vanity mirror, absolute beaming with delight. She was not the type of woman who was prone to lie to herself, accepting that she was no raving beauty; nor was she a hideous troll. But she understood that she had a slightly below average looking face and had about a hundred or more extra pounds that she could stand to lose. On the positive side, she did have a good personality, was very easy to get along with, and was willing to please.

  But still, she could not comprehend how she ever could have been so lucky as to land such a tall, handsome, good looking and successful man as Brad Stratford. And to think that they had only met three months ago and here she was in the honeymoon suite of one the most luxurious hotels in Las Vegas and was now Mrs. Bradley Fenton Stratford III.

  The whirlwind courtship had rapidly blossomed into torrid love affair and had concluded with the couple’s eloping against her parent’s wishes. Sandra didn’t really care what her parents thought; she was, after all, almost thirty years old and could do what she pleased, when she pleased. Her parents would have to understand and she was sure that someday they would grow to love Brad as much as she did. Her father said that Brad was a gold-digger after her money, even though she tried to explain that Brad was very successful and had plenty of his own money.

  She looked out into the main living room of the suite, seeing Brad on his cell phone. “Poor man.” She thought, “He works so hard in order to be successful. If he only knew how much money I will soon inherit. Perhaps after that he will learn to slow down a bit.”

  Marvin Wallace Slotnick, a.k.a. Bradley Fenton Stratford III, paced about the honeymoon suit going through the motions of appearing to be talking with an important client on his cell phone, when in fact he was not speaking with anyone. You see, Marvin/Brad was a con man, and at the moment not only was he anything but successful, but was actually flat broke.

  He looked back toward the dressing area of the suite and saw Sandra looking at him like a little lost puppy. He smiled, pantomimed blowing a kiss and thought to himself, “How did I ever end up married to such a disgusting sow as that?”

  Up until recently, he had been a small time hustler, satisfied to make a few thousand bucks here and there, never hurting for cash, until recently, and now he had accidentally stumbled into the major leagues.

  Marvin had never taken a con this far before. Usually he would meet a homely trust-fund chick with low self esteem and sell her his story about being a successful financial advisor. He would wine and dine her, get her to fall in love with him and get his hands on her money. Then he would take off in the dead of night, never to be seen again.

  With Sandra, things had not been quite as easy and had quickly gotten out of control. Although he knew that she was allotted over a quarter of a million a year from a trust fund, plenty for him to con from her, he learned by snooping through some of the documents in her penthouse apartment, that she also stood to inherit over twenty million when she turned thirty years old. That was less than a year away, and she had absolutely no idea that he knew anything about it.

  Sandra had, it seemed, fallen much harder and faster for him than any of the other girls had ever done, and she was an extremely jealous and possessive woman; a real suffocating clinging vine. She was also very high emotional maintenance. She was constantly telling him how much she loved him and that he was the greatest thing to ever happen to her and how their love was so special and so strong that it would last beyond their time on earth; that it would last for eternity, blah, blah blah.

  Marvin took advantage of her enthusiasm, of course, and being the sociopath that he was, used it to get an emotional hold on her that even her parents couldn’t break. He would tell her all the things she wanted to hear, leading her to believe that he had fallen head over heals in love with her as well.

  So here he was, in the honeymoon suite, married under a fake name, probably not even a legal marriage, to a lovesick walking side of beef that was going to make the next year of his life a living Hell, just by being part of it. She had even coerced him into going along with the idea of writing their own wedding vows, which she insisted should contain the phrase “for eternity” because she knew that their love such as theirs was so strong that even death would not separate them. He kept telling himself it would all be worth it someday soon, when the big payoff came; twenty million smack-a-roos.

  But what to do about the parents. He had been certain the old man saw right through him and had been doing everything possible to convince Sandra to end the relationship. Marvin did not know how much control the old man had over the inheritance either, which made things even trickier. He knew the actual money came from a grandfather who apparently once owned several companies, had been a gazillionaire and had set up trust fund and inheritance for all his children and grandchildren, Sandra being one of the latter.

  Marvin knew it was going to be a long and painful year, but he was determined to get in the old man’s good graces in time for his beloved sea hag to get her inheritance. By then he would have devised a plan to get his paws on the money and get out of Dodge.

  He heard Sandra’s cell phone ringing from inside the dressing area and saw her pick it up. She yelled out into the suite, “Brad, that will be Mummy and Daddy. I left them a message earlier saying that we ran off to get married,” she twittered. “I can’t wait to hear what they have to say.” She said this knowing full well that all Hell was about to break loose. Then she answered the phone, with a cheerful “Hello.”

  Marvin was furious but tried to control himself by pacing around in the other room, still pretending to be on an important call. That stupid bovine was going to screw up everything. He had to formulate a plan to try to somehow smooth things over with the parents, but knew the task would be daunting. And now, thanks to his walrus wife, the whole scheme could be blown right out of the water.

  He listened to her conversation while appearing to be busy with his own call. Things seemed to start off smoothly enough but eventually Sandra started getting louder and Marvin could tell that the old man had gotten on the line.

  “Daddy?... What are you saying? ... You are lying... How could you say such a thing?... Proof?... What proof?” she was now crying into the phone.

  Marvin thought, “Oh boy, this can’t be good.” He continued to eavesdrop as her unhappiness turned to anger.

  “You did what?... A private investigator?... Why would you do that? ... He is lying Daddy. ..... Fine…. Go right ahead…. Then do it if it makes you feel good….What do I care... We don’t need the money... Bradley has plenty of his own..”

  “Oh no,” Marvin thought to himself. “She is going to screw this up big time.”

  She continued, “I don’t care Daddy..... What?... Then we’ll live on love, Daddy. Good bye!” She closed the cell phone down and walked tearfully out to Marvin setting the phone on a nearby end table. Marvin took her in his arms pretending to console her, all the while trying to figure out how to repair the damage she had just done.

  “Daddy was absolutely horrible Brad.” She cried, “He told me all sorts of lies about you, saying that your name was not Bradley Fenton Stratford III and that you were some sort of con-man named Marvin Slotnick. How could he be so cruel as to make up such a lie? Then he threatened to not allow me to get my inheritance.”

  “Inheritance?” Marvin feigned ignorance. “What inheritance? You never said anything about any inheritance.”

  She continued, “I know that I shouldn’t have kept it from you, darling, but my grandfather left me a lot of money which I was supposed to inherit when I turn thirty. My trust fund comes from the interest on that money. Now Daddy is not only keeping me from my inheritance, but he is going to cut off my trust fund as well. That is, unless I agree to annul our marriag
e!” She started crying again.

  Marvin tried to find a way to make things right. “Sandra, my sweetness. You know I love you more than life, itself. But it is wrong for me to be the cause of you missing out on what is rightfully yours. And it is wrong for you and your parents to quarrel. They truly love you and I’m sure they only want what is best for you. I cannot allow myself to come between you and them, no matter what. Maybe we rushed into this whole marriage. Maybe we should get it temporarily annulled and continue to see each other until your father comes around and learns to like me.”

  “That will never happen, Brad. Daddy has made up his mind about you and about the money. As long as we are married, I will never get another penny. But I don’t care. We don’t need his money. We have your income and more importantly, we have each other. I told him we can live on love and our love will last for eternity.”

  Marvin fury rose to an uncontrollable level at the realization that he was stuck with this loathsome woman and they were now penniless. He pushed her away shouting, “You stupid lovesick fool! How could you be so idiotic as to throw away twenty million dollars?” Then, too late, he realized his mistake.

  “Brad? What did you just say to me? I never told you how much money I was getting.” She inquired, “How did you know about it?”

  Marvin stuttered, “I… I… I… I didn’t know! I.. I didn’t know anything of the sort…. I just pulled that number out of thin air…” Then regaining some of his composure said, “I could have just as easily said ten or thirty million.”

  “But you didn’t!” She insisted, with realization and sorrow in her tear-filled eyes. “You said twenty million! You knew! Oh my God! Daddy was right! You are after my money!”

  Marvin unsuccessfully made one last attempt to redirect the downward spiraling situation, “But Sandra. Darling. You know that I love you. That’s all that matters.”

  “Don’t say such things to me Brad, or Marvin or whatever your real name is. We swore before God to love each other for eternity, and heaven help me, somehow still love you and I know part of me always will. But it’s over Brad. We cannot be together. I’m calling Daddy. Now get out of here!”

  Sandra turned, picked up her cell phone and got ready to call her parents. Marvin panicked, grabbed a heavy iron lamp from the nearby table bringing it down hard on Sandra’s skull. With a sickening cracking sound she fell to the floor. Marvin bent down, examining for signs of blood, and found none; but he did notice a huge lump forming on the side of her head. He checked for a pulse and saw that she was still alive, but unconscious. This gave him an idea, a devious way to get out of this and perhaps still get at least some of what he wanted.

  In the bathroom of the suite was an enormous tub made of solid marble. Marvin reached under Sandra’s arms and drug her unconscious body with great difficulty into the bathroom. He filled the tub with hot water, adding scented bubble bath. Then he laboriously undressed his new bride, hoisted her naked body over the side of the tub, allowing it to slide down under the water.

  He stood over top of the tub, looking down in to the water, watching the bubbles escaping from Sandra’s nose and mouth. Soon he knew it would all be over, and he could put the rest of his quickly devised plan in to motion.

  Then unexpectedly, Sandra’s eyes opened wide and as she stared up at Marvin through the water in utter terror, attempting to struggle to the surface. Marvin did the only thing he could think of and held Sandra’s head down below the water, as she frantically kicked and thrashed. After a few agonizing minutes the struggling stopped and Marvin again looked down to see Sandra’s lifeless eyes staring up through the water at him. He knew that she was dead, but the angry look in her eyes seemed to be boring into his very soul. Marvin cleaned up around the area with towels, then finished formulating his plan.

  Three months later, Marvin sat on a moving box in Sandra’s apartment thinking about how easily he had gotten away with her murder and how he had managed to pull off the most rewarding con of his life. Although he never did get any of the twenty million, he had managed to do quite well for himself.

  Unknown to Marvin, good old love-sick Sandra had made out a new will leaving Brad/Marvin the penthouse apartment, which was paid for and worth close to a million dollars. She also willed him the bulk of her estate which, since she was not a big spender, ended up being another one and a half million. Later he found out that she had named him as a beneficiary in her three million dollar life insurance policy. And as if that was not enough, before they left for Vegas, she had taken out a term policy for another three million dollars. And finally, he had settled a law suit out of court with the hotel for an additional million. Life was good.

  To say the least, Marvin now had more money than he had ever hoped to have in his life and no one, except for Sandra’s father had suspected a thing. Marvin recounted the events following the murder. He did this often to make sure that he had not missed anything.

  As soon as he had cleaned up the spilled water around the tub, Marvin had dressed and left the room, making sure that he wedged the door open with Sandra’s key card. He immediately headed downstairs to the hotel restaurant making a point of speaking to as many hotel guests and staff members as possible, happily telling them that he was on his honeymoon and that his lovely bride had chosen to order breakfast in and was probably soaking in a luxurious bath. He turned on all the charm he could muster, making sure that he made a memorable impression with everyone.

  Once Marvin was certain that he had established a good enough alibi, he went back to their room, removed the wedge from the door, entered, and using the room phone, disguised his voice to sound as much like a woman as possible while ordering a light plate of fruit from room service.

  He immediately left the room, allowing the door to close and lock this time and hid in the stairwell at the end of the hall. When the elevator eventually opened and the room service attendant wheeled a cart toward his room door, Marvin left the stairway and quietly walked behind the man. As the attendant knocked on the door, Marvin spoke up pleasantly saying that his wife must not have heard the knock and telling the man that he had just returned from having breakfast downstairs. Taking his key card he opened the door allowing the man and cart to enter. Marvin made sure to not thank or tip the attendant immediately so that the man would stick around for a little while. He needed him as a witness.

  Marvin made a show of walking around the suite calling Sandra’s name in a loving manner, then as he entered the adjacent bathroom, he let out a terrifying scream crying “Oh my God no!”, as he pretended to discover that his beloved bride had drown. He ran back to the room in tears pleading, “Help me! Something has happened to my wife!”

  The rest was history. After a cursory investigation which included speaking to many of the witnesses who all vouched for Marvin’s alibi, it was determined that Sandra must have slipped and fallen while getting into the bath, struck her head and drown.

  Sandra’s father had, of course, raised a fuss and was, in fact, still working with a private investigator to nail Marvin. And Marvin had little doubt that eventually the old man would find a way to get him, legally or otherwise, but by then it would be too late. Marvin had already collected the insurance money and cleaned out Sandra’s bank account, putting it all into an off-shore bank in a sunny tropical country that had no extradition treaties with the United States. He had sold the apartment and in less than a week he would be on his way out of the country with a new name, a new life, and a ton of money. “Thank you Sandra my beloved” he said aloud. “So much for you and your stupid ‘for eternity’ fantasy.” He chuckled to himself as he enjoyed a last drink in the penthouse. Tomorrow he was moving into a hotel until the real-estate settlement nonsense was over, then he would be on his way.

  As Marvin sat looking across the almost empty apartment he thought that he heard the dripping of water, sounding surprisingly loud and foreboding, echoing through the hollow rooms. It sounded as if it was coming from the kitchen. He got up and walked over to the sink seeing the faucet slowly dripping into the bowl. Drip, drip, drip. The thumping tone was practically maddening in the huge empty space.