Saving Grace

The older woman pushed up from her seat. "Let me guess: big guy, bald head, braided beard?"

"Yeah," Jessica confirmed with a worried frown.

Kelly's mother laughed darkly. "I like Tim. Okay, I feel better." She rubbed her hands together, facing Jessica. "I put Ellie down around nine-thirty. She fussed a little bit, but she's been sound asleep since ten. Ain't heard a peep through this thing." She held up the baby monitor.

Jessica took the device, turning it over in her hands for a moment before setting it on the breakfast bar between the kitchen and tiny dining area of the apartment. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "Really."

The middle-aged woman took Jessica's hands. "Honey, I love you like a daughter," she said. "Always have. Things are gonna turn out right for you some day. Trust me."

Jessica smiled sheepishly. "I almost feel bad for paying you to babysit."

"Well, you better not!" the woman exclaimed, then she laughed. "Oh, one more thing. Some girl named Casey came by after you left. Had a little gift for you."

Jessica turned, noticing the basket on the kitchen counter. It was a harvest basket, filled with various summer sausages and cheese. Jessica smiled.

"Guess she figured you might be in the mood for some meat tonight or something."

Jessica echoed the laugh and took out the three folded twenties from her purse. "Thanks again."

The older woman winked. "Any time. Just take care of yourself, and that little one in there. Ain't nothing more important than the next generation. 'Cause, some day, they're gonna be looking out for us."

Jessica nodded in agreement and watched the doughty woman leave, gently closing the front door behind her. With Kelly's mother gone, Jessica raced quickly through the apartment, tidying up a bit here and there. She dabbed on some fresh deodorant and used the toilet, taking care to keep herself clean between her legs. Experimentally, she slipped a finger between still-wet folds and tasted her own nectar.

God, I hope he shows up--

The knock at the front door was soft and subdued, just as Jessica had specified so as not to wake the baby. She felt a jolt of excitement as she headed through the spacious apartment to the front door. A quick glance through the peep-hole made her giggle at the sight of Raymond still with the laurel on his head. Smoothing her hands down her tight dress, she turned the knob.

"Hi."

His eyes drank her in, making no effort to conceal his interest. "You know, I have to admit I was a little worried."

"About?"

"About this being your address. Like, maybe you'd changed your mind or something."

She gave him a seductive look. "Something you'll learn about me," she said, pushing the door open wider. "Once I make up my mind, I'm not about to change it."

He matched her look. "Neither am I," he said, stepping past her and glancing around briefly within the apartment. "Wow. Nice place. Never really liked the looks of these apartments from the outside, but I like what you've done here."

Jessica barely heard Raymond's words, fixated as she was upon the implied promise of intimate coupling. Without a word, she stepped around him and pressed her body against his, settling her arms upon Raymond's shoulders. "You mind if a girl's a little direct?" she asked.

Raymond's chest swelled as he breathed in. "Not at all."

She smiled sexily, then leaned in for a kiss the had them both moaning softly. Hands roamed across bare and barely-covered skin. Finally, Jessica pulled back. "Good," she said breathily. "Because I wanna fuck you."

Raymond made the effort to control himself as Jessica pivoted away. He watched her from behind, his eyes predatory. "Talk about coincidence," he said. "I've been thinking about tasting you all night."

Jessica allowed herself a small smile, enjoying the act of drawing out the pleasure she would soon be enjoying. She headed to the kitchen, glancing to the baby monitor on the breakfast bar briefly before eying the bundle Casey had left. "Care for a snack?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Depends," Raymond responded. "Is it hot, wet, and juicy?"

Jessica smirked, opening her silverware drawer and taking out a long, sharp knife. "Well, I could heat it up, I guess, But I usually prefer my meat raw."

Raymond chuckled in a low tone behind her. "Me, too."

Jessica's smile remained, becoming sultry as she reached into the gift basket. She took down a cutting board from the wall above the sink and pulled out a summer sausage from the gift basket. Behind her on the breakfast bar, she heard the faint moaning of her daughter through the monitor.

"Mind if I ask you something, Raymond?" she asked, passing the razor edge of the knife easily through the sausage.

"Go ahead."

"Does it bother you at all that I have a daughter?"

His voice seemed closer when he responded, but Jessica didn't turn around. She heard Grace moaning again through the monitor, but it was a faint sound, such as the baby often made while sleeping.

"Why should it?" Raymond asked rhetorically.

Jessica shrugged. "It's just that, most guys I meet seem to be a little put off when they find out I have a baby girl."

"I'm not like most men."

She grinned, feeling that familiar swelling in both her chest and between her thighs. "I know. And I hope you don't take it the wrong way when I say that kind of scares me--"

"MA! MA!"

The sudden loud and insistent scream of her daughter through the monitor made Jessica whirl around instinctively with the intention of bolting toward Grace's bedroom door. But she gasped as she found herself staring abruptly into the face of Raymond, who had apparently approached silently behind her. The expression on his face was one of shock and barely-registered pain. His right arm was raised high above his head, fist clenched tightly about the hilt of a folding knife with a wickedly serrated edge.

For a long moment, Jessica stared into Raymond's face, and he into hers. Eventually, their eyes drifted downward, falling upon Jessica's hand, still clutching the long sharp knife which was now buried deep into the center of Raymond's chest. Blood had already begun to soak into the toga, turning pale white into deepest crimson.

"Oh, Jesus," muttered Jessica, letting go of the grip of the knife. Raymond stumbled, mouth working as if to speak, but no words issued forth, only blood which bubbled over his teeth and dripped out from between useless lips.

It took Jessica a moment to understand what had happened. She watched as Raymond toppled back, futilely clutching at the knife in his chest. But he was already dead before his brain registered the fact; nothing he could do would save his life. The kitchen knife had sliced through his heart, while the blade in his own hand fell to the floor, unsatisfied.

With an anguished cry, Jessica stumbled over Raymond's still-twitching body toward Grace's room, throwing open the door. In a matter of moments, she had her daughter in her arms, holding the crying infant close, feeling delicate little arms clutching her neck.

"It's okay, baby, it's okay," Jessica cooed, patting Baby Grace's back. "Mommy's here. Mommy's always here."

"M-ma . . . ."

*****

By the time the various men and women in their uniformed coveralls had left, removing the body and taking whatever evidence they needed, Jessica felt dramatically sober. She sat staring at the TV, holding her daughter against her bosom. Grace had fallen asleep in short order, and had not awakened no matter the activity in the apartment.

Detective Davidge thanked the crime scene investigators as they left, standing in the doorway of the apartment. The information he had been given already had him feeling as if something more had happened than that which the evidence showed. Typical Halloween night, he thought cynically.

Carefully, he stepped around the edge of the couch and stood before Jessica, watching the alluring woman in her sexy little Pocahontas costume as she rocked gently back and forth. "You okay?"

Jessica glanced up, dark eyes swollen and red. "Should I be?"

Davidge shrugged, then pulled the coffee table further from the couch and sat down upon it. "Guess that depends on your point of view," he said.

"H-he was gonna kill me," Jessica stammered.

The detective nodded. "Looks that way."

Her anguished mind could not resist the question. "Why?"

He sighed. "Well, it's probably too early for speculation, but the knife your attacker had on him looks like the same knife that was most likely used to kill a young lady in this same complex, exactly two years ago. Could be that this Raymond Atwood guy was a serial killer."

Jessica stared at the detective in wonder. "I got the idea he'd been here before. Something he said," she mused, thinking about the bizarre consequences of the night. She shivered, thinking how lucky she had been to have been holding the knife just when Grace had screamed, and how she wouldn't have even had the knife out if not for Casey's gift basket, whom she would not have met if not for the baby monitor, the same monitor through which Grace had screamed, saving her mother's life . . . .

"Miss Chan?"

Jessica gave the detective a weak smile. "Just thinking about all the coincidences," she said.

He smiled back. "Someone once told me there's no such thing as coincidence. Just plans other people make and don't tell you about."

Jessica nodded numbly. "Chance favors the outcome," she muttered, repeating Raymond's strangely philosophical words.

"Well, fortune was definitely on your side tonight," Davidge agreed.

She managed a small laugh. "I should just be happy that Grace and I are safe."

The detective frowned in a wondering way. "Grace?"

Jessica nodded. "My daughter's name. Why?"

Davidge chuckled dryly. "Like you said, coincidences. Grace Mathews was the name of the woman who was killed two years ago tonight."

Jessica stared blankly at the detective for a long moment, then looked down upon her daughter. Baby Grace was awake, with wide dark eyes staring up at her mother, little mouth stretched by a knowing smile that seemed far too mature for a child.

No such thing as coincidence, Jessica thought in amazement, then kissed Grace's forehead.

-finis-

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