Well, my blogger followers are AWESOME!!! I've gotten more hits over the last week than I've had all year!
For that, I'll give you a Merry Xmas gift, the epiphany in my upcoming novel Nightcrawler (available at Amazon through Black Rose Writing in January).
Love you guys!!!
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Sabrina drove back out to Staten Island after dropping Rita off in front of the Force of God Christian Church, leaving her to explain everything to the Pastor. Undoubtedly the police would ask Rita what happened at the apartment. Her story was that the women had been threatened by Hijo and fled the premises before calling 911. They would be left with Bobby’s tale about a ninja coming into the house and tying Hijo to the radiator before writing graffiti on the refrigerator.
She went back to the apartment to change into a T-shirt and jeans after taking a quick shower and grabbing a bag of rabbit food. She took the ten-minute drive to the BCC campus and headed inside to look over some contracts and proposals. She rode the elevator to the second floor and was somewhat surprised to see Jon Aeppli’s office light on in the darkened suite.
“Hey, Jon,” Sabrina leaned into the doorway. “I hope your wife isn’t blaming me for this.”
“I really didn’t try and give her much of an explanation,” Jon’s pale blue eyes bored into hers. “That friend of yours really made an impact tonight, didn’t he?”
“Who was that, Hoyt?” she asked weakly, slipping into the armchair in front of Jon’s desk.
“I take it you haven’t seen the news or gotten on the Internet.”
“Well, not really.”
“That Nightcrawler friend of yours attacked a man in his own home with a chemical weapon a few hours ago,” Jon was nettled. “The man happened to be a distant relative of the Mayor’s partner. He’s got the Mayor out for blood. The NYPD has an all-points alert out for the Nightcrawler. Your guy was crazy enough to leave a handwritten note on the victim’s refrigerator.”
“You mean the Mayor’s a sissy?” Sabrina was wide-eyed.
“That’s really not the issue here,” Jon leaned over the desk towards her. “Besides, if you hadn’t spent so much time partying over the last couple of years instead of watching the news, you would’ve known that. At any rate, the Mayor’s partner says his nephew was gassed because he was a black man living with a white woman, and the assailant allegedly told him that when he attacked him. He even said the zero tolerance note was a warning to blacks who date white women.”
“That lying dog!” she exploded. “He beat her so bad she was taken to the hospital the night before! It had nothing to do with race, it was a warning to guys who beat on women!”
“Now how would you know that?” Jon said gently.
At once the tension boiled over, and Sabrina cupped her forehead as she covered her eyes, weeping softly. Jon got up from his desk and walked around, patting her shoulder comfortingly.
“It’s okay, kid,” he consoled her.
“It happened so fast, he made me so mad, and he was acting like he was going to hit my friend Rita,” she sobbed as Jon handed her a handkerchief. “He was treating that little boy so mean, and I knew he had just put that poor girl in the hospital. I knew I should’ve never gone over there, but they didn’t have anyone else and the Pastor couldn’t go. I was just so upset.”
“Bree, you’re not telling me you’re the Nightcrawler,” Jon said in disbelief.
“I didn’t say that,” she sniffed halfheartedly.
“For crying out loud,” Jon walked over to the plate glass window and stared out unseeingly at the river. “What on earth have you gotten yourself into?”
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