least. So I’m not the only one who saw Denise’s outbursts. But your wife deals with these types of personality’s everyday of her life. She should have known what not to say or do to set this woman off on her final path of self-destruction.”
The Gray man had indeed wondered what was said or done when Denise had walked into Chris’ hotel room. Denise had never said. He even thought about the worst case scenario: That somehow Denise had walked in on his wife and her ex-husband in bed together. Angel had told him about her single sexual escapade with Chris before they were married. She had told Seth that it was a half product of a lifetime of curiosity, while the rest was the result of carry over emotion of the sudden death of Chris’ then fiancé.
There is a ton of emotion, most of it negative, in Chris’ life right now. Could history have repeated itself? What if Angel had ‘comforted’ him some more just as he and Denise had arrived? Seth felt his jaws reddening. Perhaps they would christen him the Red Man soon.
“So what are you going to do now, Roxanne? Are you on some type of vindication mission? Are you going to right all of my wife’s wrongs?”
Roxanne would not look him in his gray eyes for the first time. “I didn’t come here to seek your permission, Doctor. You should consider this short conversation between us as a courtesy call only.”
“What does that supposed to mean, Roxanne?”
“Your wife is killing people, Doctor. Maybe she isn’t doing it by any of the traditional means, but she is causing their deaths all the same.”
“What are you going to do?” Seth felt himself biting his bottom lip.
“Finding a missing person is the absolute worse job that any investigator can be tasked with doing. Too often in the past, I’ve been asked to inform a parent, or a child, a sibling, or a lover that I couldn’t find the one in their life who had gone missing, or if I did…that I found this person of their profound interest dead. I don’t think that there is anything more difficult than telling someone that their beloved is never coming home again.”
Seth nodded in understanding for two reasons. The first obvious one is he’d been present when the news broke that his older brother and Erica Lovings were both were found dead…and the anguish thereafter that occurred for all involved.
And then the second reason caused him to say to Roxanne: “I understand that responsibility as well, Roxanne.” He said calmly. “I’ve often had to reveal a terrible diagnosis to a patient’s family after surgery had been completed. I’ve had patients die on my table under my care.”
Roxanne looked away, frowned and then found his gray eyes again with her dark ones. “Then you should know that coming to my decision about Angel wasn’t an easy one.”
“What—“
“I’m informing you here and now that you’re loved one is never coming home again, Doctor. And I do mean never. Dr. Angel Hicks-Dupree deserves to die for all of the pain and misery and death that she’s caused. And I mean to kill her as soon as I find her again before she can inflict more.”
“I can’t let you do that…I’ll warn her. I’ll get the authorities involved.” Seth plucked his cell phone out of his pocket but seemed to go all thumbs while trying to dial up the combination to 911. And then he fumbled it, the phone landing in a bed of yellow roses near his shoes. Damn you man, you’re a surgeon for Christ sakes. He had saved lives with these hands. Why couldn’t he grasp this damned phone…and possibly save the most precious life of all that personally mattered to him.
“I don’t think that you mean that at all, Doctor. I don’t you will call the police. You can’t go to Chris Prince because you’re very presence here opens you up to questions that you are not prepared to answer.” Roxanne said. “And honestly, Doctor, I think that deep down in your soul you know that I’m right about this. You may even want to help me find her. Angel needs to be put out of all of our miseries.”
He neither says anything nor makes a movement to retrieve his phone. Roxanne must have taken this as a sign that it was time for her to move on alone. She turned away from him without looking back. The Gray man doesn’t move to stop her.
The wind has shifted and the burning smell had returned almost instantaneously. It nearly engulfs his senses. Is this what Hell smells like? Maybe I’m the one who died the other night? Maybe I’ve already died and went to Hell already for daring to consider this stranger’s offer as a viable solution to anything.
He looked around him. He was the only one alive in this dreaded place. At least these dead had some semblance of peace that he did not. He ran his fingernails across Denise’s tombstone again…and again…until his nails had broken and bled from the pressure he’d put on them. The gravel had cut into the sensitive skin at the tips of his fingers. I couldn’t save you, Denise. And then his memory cut into his soul, injuring it far worse than the gravel had hurt his fingers. I couldn’t save you Antoinette…or Clinton…or Sam. And it doesn’t look as if I’m going to save you from your life either Pam.
And Seth then decided that perhaps ‘saving others’ wasn’t his true calling.
Maybe doing quite the opposite…was where his destiny lay from this point moving forward.
Angel had denied him a simple courtesy by refusing to answer or return his phone calls.
Angel had dishonored her wedding vows time and again by sleeping with other men.
Angel had cast him aside for her one true love: Her adoration for her drinking.
Roxanne Sanchez had walked nearly out of site to where her wrecked car was double parked when she finally heard him calling out to her.
“Wait, Roxanne,” Seth yelled so she would not leave. And after he had recovered from his sprint and was standing behind her next to her Honda. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life regretting my decision right now. I know that a higher power will make sure I spend an eternity regretting it as well.” Dr. Seth Dupree told the dark eyed woman standing next to her car. “But if you are going to truly kill my wife…then I should be there at the end. Let me come with you.”
End of Episode 4
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Sneak peak at Zero Hour
Coming soon from Nest Egg Publishing
Many say that we are living in the last days. What if I told you that your last day was today?
You are living here, now, in your final hour.
Welcome to the Zero Hour.
Thomas Pepper finally reveals what he knows to an anxious country teetering on the edge of the abyss. Yet, he learns the hard way that he is not the lone truth teller in this game. Other realities…other truths can have just as far reaching implications. The Prince Brothers and Dr. Angel Hicks Dupree are going to pay a high price when they witness this costly lesson firsthand.
In fact for one of the three, the Zero Hour is their final hour.
One will pay the highest price of all.
Dedication
As I’ve said before, this one is for…well, for me. This tale has been in my pipeline for a long time.
Nest Egg Publishing Note:
This was a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are use factiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Nest Egg Presents: Where are our Children:
Episode 1: 411 (Available Now!!!)
Episode 2: Deliverance (Available Now!!!)
Episode 3: Rapture (Available Now!!!)
Episode 5: Zero Hour
Episode 6: Betrayals
Episode 7: Scar
Episode 8: Tempest Rising
Episode 9: Whirlwind
Available in Trade Paperback
Episode 1: 411 (Available Now!!!)
Episode 2: Deliverance (Available Now!!!)
Episode 3: Rapture (Available Now!!!)<
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Episode 4: Past Prologue (Coming Soon)
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