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| IMPOSTER BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 75 |
Joining forces...yes, you would try to do that...now that the love
of your
life is here. Don't you remember who this is, Toddy? I'm not
Pete...some
neanderthal characteracture with no real power behind him...I'm
the power,
Toddy, and always have been...and you're finally going to know
all of what
I am!
Continuing with his phone conversation, he said casually, "Look...I'm glad I caught you, Sherry. I need you to prescribe some new medication. The other stuff is making me sick. Uh...Slider, isn't over there, is he?"
Hanging up the phone with a perplexed look, Sherry faced Slider again.
"Who was that?" Slider asked suspiciously.
"The hospital," Sherry lied -- knowing that she had said nothing that would give away the caller. "I'm going to have to go, Slider...emergency...something's happened over there."
Sherry moved mechanically toward the door -- still numb from the bizarre twist in her life.
"You're leaving? Now?"
"Yes," Sherry said and plunged ahead with what she knew she had to do.
"This is not over, Sherry."
Oh, but you're very wrong, Slider Paxton...it's over for me...
"I've got to go," she said -- averting her eyes and refusing to look at him again.
Resignedly, he dug his hands into his pockets and walked in stunned silence past her. No matter what you think...it is not over! How could I have made such a mess of this! Not only that...but she still doesn't know about Nick!
"Sherry..." his mind had become a blank. Minutes before he had tasted her lips and wanted so much more, and the woman he had been friends with for years had ceased to exist and an alluring, captivating woman, whose body felt so natural against his, had replaced her.
"I don't regret this, Sherry. I wish you could..."
"Good-bye, Slider," she lowered her eyes and shut the door behind him.
Standing alone in the hallway, the bleak emptiness inside him nearly overwhelmed him, and immediately he began berating himself. Why didn't you just yell out that he's married! You idiot!! That would have set her straight once and for all! Except... I don't want this to be some competition between him and me....not like then...in school...with Michelle.
The tiniest hint of something wrong stole into her mind, and Tea found herself once more reassessing the man across the room. He's your mirror image, Todd...the well hidden other side of you. He's smart and calculating like you, but he doesn't have the disadvantage of having some oppressive mental monster from his childhood eating through him. This Nick is only scarred on the outside, isn't he?
"My doctor," Nick informed her as he hung up the phone and walked slowly back over to her. "She's been a real help to me. She and Slider are friends."
Sherry...the doctor...of course! She was the one he mentioned earlier! Somehow I've got to get to her and find out what it is about her that will help to get rid of this alter. I need to ask Slider who she is...Nick mustn't suspect anything.
"Oh, I see. Has she...seen him? I'm a little worried. It's been so long."
"Nope...she hasn't. She does live in the building."
"Well," Tea looked toward the front door. "I'd better just go down and check on him."
"I'll go," Nick said abruptly.
"No, Todd. You may be recovering, but I don't want you walking all over the place, and you're still a wanted fugitive, remember?"
"Yeah...but a dead one," Nick's eyes leveled down on her with feigned concern. I don't know...maybe I'd better..."
"Forget about it, Todd. I'll be fine. Besides, he may not be able to find my car."
Lives in the building! This woman is here, and I can get to her...
Edwards slammed the door of the Lexus -- the sharp bang of the door echoing throughout the garage.
"Well?"
"You're right. She was here."
"Any FBI left?"
"No...don't think so. They hung out here for a couple of hours and questioned the staff, but apparently she had already checked out. Something interesting, though. Some woman fitting her height and weight description, but with blonde hair, left earlier."
"I told you she was no fool, didn't I?" Sykes' alert eyes darted around the garage. Starting up the engine, he looked with deadly seriousness at Edwards -- a plan formulating in his mind.
"My laptop is in the trunk. We're going on a search...a search for any name in the Chicago area that would be someplace where she would go."
"Then I have an idea," Edwards said and smiled to himself that he had always been intrigued by the private lives of some of Llanview's most wanted citizens. "Let's start with Peter Manning."
Nearly jumping at the sound of the ringing phone again, Sherry picked it up and answered breathlessly.
"Hello?"
"Sherry...it's me again. I can talk now...and I'm sure you can, too."
"Wha...what do you mean by that, Nick?"
"I mean that I know who was in your apartment when I called. Did you get rid of him?"
Shivering inside that he would figure out her lie, she tried to think of an answer. "What are you talking about, Nick?"
"Don't bother playing that game with me, Sherry. I know you, remember? Someone was there...I could feel it, and there's only one person who would get you so rattled."
"I told you that I hadn't seen him."
"Nice try, but you're not a great little lier, Sherry. Slider went down to the garage and was supposed to come back here. Guess what? That was some time ago, and I figure he took a little sidetrip...say, to your place."
She wanted to tell him to go to hell and mean it, but she couldn't. Right at this moment she was aware that he was the one who had changed her entire life, and she wanted verification that she wasn't insane or worse.
"He...he may be on his way back there. He just left."
"Now we're getting somewhere. What exactly did he want?" Nick's voice sounded strangely sharp.
"Well, he was acting very weird...he wanted to tell me something...about you."
"What did he say?" Nick's tone startled her with its ferocity.
"Nothing. We...we didn't get that far. Nick...I really need to talk to you...I need..."
"You need to meet me somewhere, and then we'll talk...but not here. Where's a good place?"
"Well...there's a small park a few blocks from here. Just go out the front of the building and take a right. You can't miss it. But...Nick...you may have trouble getting there."
"No, I won't. It's all settled. Meet me there in about fifteen or twenty minutes...and Sherry?"
"What?"
"Don't stand me up!"
"We're here!" Sam said triumphantly and bit his lip as he remembered that his passenger was still asleep.
She had fallen asleep a hour ago, and he had amused himself from time to time by stealing looks at her as she rested so peacefully -- her blonde head turned toward him and pressed up against her hands. This is only the first of many such trips with you...trips to places we've never been and want to discover...together.
Glancing over, he looked at her dewy, soft complexion and his heart beat a little more as he imagined their lives together. In all this time... well, really never...have I had someone like you...a friend who would really listen to me. That you're also someone I'm madly in love with and want to know intimately is more than I could ever have hoped for...
Stirring slightly, Viki's eyes opened halfway, and she looked up at him.
"Did you say something?"
"Oh...nothing," Sam said not wanting to disturb her sleep again. "Go back to sleep."
"I can tell when you're backpedaling, Rappaport," Viki said sagely. "So where are we, anyway?"
"Chicago," he responded and smiled as her half-closed eyes suddenly became alive again.
"Well, why didn't you tellme!" Vicki admonished him with phony irritation. Raising up, she focused out through the car's windshield and saw the faint skyline of the city.
"Oh, Sam!" she breathed with sudden awareness that they were about to approach the place where all her questions could be answered.
"It won't be long, Viki," Sam said and thought again of the idea that had previously flashed in his mind and that he had voiced out loud to Viki. Slid er...Slider Paxton...
Tea stepped into the elevator and smiled at the other occupant.
"Excuse me...do you live in this building?"
"Yes, I do."
"I'm sorry, but I'm in a terrible hurry, and I'm trying to find someone who lives in this building. I was wondering if you might know her. All I know is her first name...Sherry...and...that she's a doctor."
Sherry Liu's attention turned directly on the woman standing next to her. With surprise written on her face, she said, "That's me...I'm Sherry Liu."
Tea's heart began to pound rapidly. Santa Maria!! It's her!!
Her eyes traveled over the Asian woman, and a pang of misgiving came over her as she really looked closely at her. What she saw was a woman about her own height with shimmering, coal black hair and eyes that were unlike any she had ever seen.
She's...beautiful!
"I'm sorry," Tea faltered as she had failed to say anything for several seconds.
"For what?" Sherry said with wonder, and her eyes also traveled over the woman whose large, deep brown eyes looked as if they were in a state of shock. "Who are you?"
"I'm..." Tea paused as the elevator doors opened to a floor, but no got on.
"...I'm here visiting Slider Paxton. My name is Tea...Manning."
Sherry's body froze as the doors swished open to the lobby floor.
"You know Slider?" she asked -- her eyes becoming glassy with suspicion.
"Well, yes...through Nick," Tea answered tentatively and pushed the elevator button for the garage.
"You don't even know him"..."He's not who you think he is"..."Sit down...I have to tell you a story..."
The battering echo of Slider's past statements to her got louder in her brain as her eyes moved down to the slim left hand of the smartly dressed and extremely attractive woman. A large, sparkling gem on her hand lit up under the elevator lights -- its vibrancy shining up into Sherry's eyes with blinding accuracy and shooting straight into her soul.
