Next Summer

Part 6

Luke's head was pounding like it had a jackhammer inside it. He felt something warm trickling down the side of his face. Now he remembered. He had been hit on the head. Where was he? He couldn't move his arms and legs. He managed with some effort to open his eyes. He was in a room, a kitchen with no furniture except the chair he was sitting on. He still couldn't move. He was tied to the chair, wrists and ankles. The room was dimly lit by two candles flickering on the bench on the far side of the room. As his eyes slowly adjusted he could make out the same figure of the woman he had seen earlier standing watching him. She had long straight hair and was wearing a short frilly dress. The candles were behind her and it was hard to make out her face.
"S-Summer?" Luke croaked.

The woman slowly came forward and leaned in front of Luke so her long hair brushed against his face. She had the face of a fairy princess, a beautiful face with hair as black as night. She kissed Luke lightly on his lips and whispered, "Of course it's me, silly. Who did you think I was? Oh you poor thing, you're bleeding." She dabbed at his bloody wound with a dishcloth.

Where was Max he wondered, looking around the room. Max could have stopped her, but who had hit him on the head? Summer was in front of him and he was hit from behind.
"Looking for me?" A figure stepped through the open back door. Max dropped a plank of wood on the floor and walked up to Summer, putting his arm around her shoulder. "Sorry about whacking you on the head, Luke, but we didn't want you resisting too much before we could make you comfortable in this chair for the last remaining minutes of your life."
"What? You? Max!," Luke gasped, "I thought you were my friend."
"Not anymore, Luke old buddy. Summer here has made me a better offer. I help her dispose of you and she's mine."
"I'm sorry, Luke," Summer said, "but Max and I love each other, and I'm not going to leave him like the others," but then she leaned forward so Max couldn't see what she was doing, and gave Luke a wink.
He wasn't sure what it meant but he suspected it was going to be bad news for both him and Max. He tried to play for time while pulling at the ropes holding his wrists to the arms of the chair. "So how long has this been going on with you and Max?" he asked.
"Only a couple of weeks," Summer said, "I found him one night at a bar and we got to talking, and then other things." She smiled.
"What about that politician who killed himself because of you two nights ago?"
"He was a means to an end. I needed somewhere to live, some new clothes and cash. He gave me all three. Too bad his credit card had a maximum of only ten thousand dollars on it though. Oh, and in case you're wondering how I got out of the mineshaft the night you tried to kill me, I managed to get out of the plastic and I threw up all night. In the morning I heard voices. Two hikers were walking past. I called out and they dropped a rope down. One of them came down and got me out. I told them I was hiking the day before and fell into the hole. They believed me and gave me a lift back to the city."
Luke looked over at Max. "And when you went down that mineshaft you didn't really find the remains of an unborn baby, did you?"
Max chuckled. "Of course not. That was Summer's idea to make you feel extra bad for what you did. But the plastic was there. I went back and got it out the next day. We thought you might confess to the police and bring them there."

Luke glared at Summer. "So it wasn't bad enough that you pushed me down the stairs and cut the brake line on the car, or did Max do that?"
"No, I did that," Summer said casually, "One of my old boyfriends was a mechanic and he showed me how do it. Weird boyfriend, eh? I went to your flat that night. You had left your car in the driveway, so I crawled under and cut the brake line. I thought you would crash when you drove somewhere the next morning, but you came out and got in the car just as I was sneaking off. So I followed you to see your accident. Did I scare you when I came right up to you?"
Luke didn't answer, but he had to stall for more time. One of the ropes was coming loose. "What about tonight?" he said, "I suppose you had that all planned in advance, and whose house is this anyway?" It looks abandoned."
Max answered. "Well Luke, buddy boy, you played right into our hands . You called me to come over, so I told Summer to call you an hour later. I would be conveniently at your flat at the time, and I would offer to go with you as backup. Would you have come here by yourself? Probably not."
"And this house has been for sale for the last year," Summer added, "I knew about it from my old job at the real estate office. I knew where the spare key was hidden outside. I just hid the For Sale sign out the back so you wouldn't see it when you got here."
"We've wasted enough time talking," Max snapped, "Are you going to finish him off?" He turned around and looked at Summer who was standing back by the bench with the candles.
"What about my body?" Luke asked desperately. His wrist wasn't loose enough yet. "How are you going to hide that? And what about my blood which has already been dripping on the floor. That's evidence?"
"They'll never tie it back to us," Max said, "Summer wanted to dump your body in the mineshaft. Wouldn't that be fitting? But while we were waiting for you to wake up I had a look out the back. Behind this house is one of those big storm water drains. Thanks to all the rain tonight it's running a banker. A body dumped in there will be carried down into the river and probably wash kilometres downstream before any finds it. No one will know where it came from."

As Luke looked at Max he could see Summer behind him picking up the plank of wood, presumably the one Max had used to knock him out earlier. She walked slowly towards him.
Max turned and saw her with the plank. "Oh, you're gonna use that?" he said, "I thought you would use the knife. Good bye, Luke old buddy. Sorry it's come to this, but you lose, I win, and I get the girl."
Luke closed his eyes as Summer swung the plank as hard as she could. There was a sickening crunch of shattering bone. But the blow Luke had braced himself for never came. He opened his eyes to see Max lying on the floor in front of him with blood starting to pool around his head.
Summer dropped the plank and stood over him. "No Max, you don't get the girl," she said casually.

Horrified at the scene before him Luke just stared first at Max, then at Summer.
"How could you think I would kill you Lukey?" she said with a smile, 'I love you. We're going to be together. I only used Max to get to you, but I had to get rid of him. He might have gone to the police. Now you stay right here while I drag him out and put him in the storm drain. By the way that was a good idea he had for getting rid of a body, don't you think?"

"You, you've killed him," Luke whispered, "just like you killed Susan all those months ago."
"Susan? That tramp!" Summer hissed, "You would have gone after her again and she would have taken you back." Then her tone softened and she almost sounded like she was about to cry. "I didn't mean to kill her. I went to warn her to keep away from you but she started yelling at me saying I was a psycho, so I grabbed a brass vase and hit her with it. I thought I just knocked her out."

Luke felt the rope loosening further on his right wrist. He could almost slip it free. He couldn't let Summer drag Max out and dump him in the drain. He could still be alive. "But you did kill her, Summer. You killed Susan and now you've killed Max. You're a murderer." The rope was loose enough to pull his hand free. Summer didn't seem to notice. She turned and walked over to the kitchen bench where she slowly picked up the knife she had been holding earlier and turned back to face Luke who was frantically trying to untie his left hand with his now released right hand.
"Noooo!" she cried, "You can't get free. Not yet." She advanced on Luke holding the knife in the air.

There was a sound at the door. "Police. Drop the knife, lady."
Luke looked up to see Detective Townsend standing in the kitchen doorway pointing his pistol at Summer, but Summer just froze with the knife pointing at Luke's heart. "Get back!" she screamed, "Or I'll kill him! Get back!"
"I repeat, drop the knife," Townsend, "If you try and stab him I will have to fire."
For several seconds nothing happened. Summer stood there holding the knife at Luke's chest while Townsend continued to point his pistol at her.
"Summer, it's over. Please drop the knife," Luke pleaded trying to defuse the situation.
She looked at him with tears forming in her eyes. "I love you, Lukey, I would never hurt you. But I won't go to jail. Slowly she backed away from Luke towards the bench with the candles, still holding the knife in a threatening position while Townsend took a couple of steps towards her. "Come on lady, drop that knife," he commanded.

Luke watched her back up to the bench and noticed her glancing to the left. He suddenly guessed what she was planning. There were two doors to the kitchen. One from the front of the house, and the other to the back where Max had come in earlier. Townsend was standing just inside the door from the front, but the back door was slightly ajar. She was going to make a break for it. "Townsend," he yelled, "She's going to...."
But before he got the words out Summer in a lightning movement reached behind her and knocked the candles over. The room was plunged into darkness.

Almost all is revealed, but there is more in the final chapter.
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