Midnight Creek Tales

#4. The Duchess' Lost Portrait / Chapter 3

The drive home was rather quiet until we arrived at our neighborhood. We lived in the wealthiest part of London, where the quality of life was that of a utopia. All of the houses were big in stature and showed off their impressive artwork. Fountains trickled with bubbling, luscious, and euphoric water that was as clear as the Bahamas and glistened in the moonlight like the stars in the galaxy.

The town's gates were made out of pure gold, and the streets had been paved to perfection. And although most of the houses were giants, none could compare to my Polyphemus of a home!

The neighborhood comprised of beautiful architecture that would make the Queen of England shrivel up in jealousy. The city stretched long and far until it came to a huge hill, and on that hill, my mansion sat.

My house was built on the top so we could always be the center of attention. With the backyard being comprised of a croquet field and nicely trimmed hedges that filled the sides; which made for a fun afternoon. There was also a waterfall raining down creating a nice swimming pool, and acres of land that stretched out until the gates at the end. Outside of the solid gold gates, there was a vast forest. The forest stretched out very far for miles, and that would eventually lead to the ocean.

As we started to pull into our driveway, I slowly turned my head back to check the painting, to make sure that it was still in top condition.

I seemed to be a bit paranoid with this object in particular. If anything happened to it, I wouldn't know what to do.

The car came to a complete stop, and my wife yawned with her mouth opening like a huge vacuum. "Elaine thinking of going to bed?" I asked.

She nodded her head tiredly and closed her eyes. "You can't yet. The guys are coming over tonight, and I need someone to serve us food and drinks."

She didn't respond, so I repeated myself, no answer again. Elaine knew I had a violent temper, which even made me angrier. "Elaine!" I threw my hand and slapped her hard across the face.

She jumped up from her light slumber clutching her cheek with little tears in her eyes. "I told you to stay awake! You're going to get into the house and make us something to eat! And while you're at it, go down to the cellar and pick out a suitable wine for us to try out, as well as a couple of beers."

"How about Judy? She's not working tonight?"

"No, Judy used a personal day."

Elaine sat there quiet for a couple of seconds and eventually trudged out of the car and began to walk up the steps to the mansion. I grunted and calmed down a bit. After about a minute I opened the car door and went into the back to fetch the portrait.

When I got into the house I was then confronted with a problem; I had no idea where to put the painting. Scavenging around the house, I eyed every possible area where I could potentially put this immaculate piece of art.

Walking into the parlor room, I saw the ideal place and leaped at it, and stuck the portrait above the fireplace at a safe distance. It seemed to fit in very well with the scene of the room, and I couldn't be happier with the choice. The only thing that was bugging me about it was the fact that Elaine's portrait was already above the mantle. I tried to think of a solution and ultimately came up with a pretty darn good one. I grabbed Elaine's and threw it to the side.

I began to take off the protective sealing from the portrait when I heard a sudden ring! I jumped up almost dropping the painting but luckily held it tight with a grip stronger than steel.

The telephone was ringing.

I instinctively put the portrait down carefully and attended to the phone that was on the wall at the end of the parlor room. I picked it up, "Hello, who is this?"

"Cole, I gathered up all the guys, we're at my place. We're going to leave in ten minutes or so."

"Okay seems like a sufficient amount of time to get ready. Elaine is being a pain in the ass right now so the food might be a little late into the night."

"Why did you even marry Elaine in the first place?" He chuckled.

"Well, to be honest, she's becoming quite a bore. It was sweet and spontaneous the first year or two into our marriage, but now I can't stand her! The old horse has too many miles on her, and honestly, I need a new ride! With Elaine I know all there is to know about her, and she is getting older and older each day, and no amount of makeup can cover the ugliness of those wrinkles that stretch across her aging face. And if that wasn't bad enough, she can't even bare me a child!"

"That sucks mate, are you going to divorce her?" Starkey asked on the other end.

I stood against the wall for a solid five seconds and cocked my head back to make sure Elaine wasn't near me. "If she doesn't kill over soon, then she'll end up with her bags on the streets."

"Yeah with half of the money you earned in them," Starkey said bringing that attention to my ears.

"Shit! You're right, and she'll live off my money for the rest of her life." I banged my foot against the wall in displeasure and began to think. "Perhaps there could be an escape out of this predicament..."

"And what would that be Cole?" He said now intrigued.

I didn't answer for a couple of seconds, "Well cmon mate, out with it!"

I turned back around checking again for Elaine and then responded to his question, "Murder..."