Cookies & Cream Ch. 48

I came out of the diner only to find Michelle in her red Lexus, her head on the steering wheel. I went over and knocked on her window. She looked over, recognized me and rolled down her window. When I saw the running black mascara, I knew she had been crying the whole time. I felt her pain.

"I...I'm not to ask if you're okay. Because I can tell you're not." I started before she sniffed so heavily. I let her sob for a few moments before I sighed. "I want to let you know that I agree with you about Spencer Caliber. He is not...a killer. I had a talk with him. He is like an uncle to me. Like one of those uncles who play Santa Claus every Christmas.

"Anyway, I'll let you be."

"Wait!" Michelle came out of the car a few minutes after I took a turn. She stopped me by grabbing a hold of me arms. She was firm yet gentle enough not to bruise me. "You talked to Spence?"

"Is that a problem?" I asked, showing her fear. Yes, I was very afraid she would slap me or something. I'm not sure why I felt that at that time. I mean she didn't have a romantic feeling for him. She laughed when I told her about that moment a few days later. ("Really? You thought I was jealous of someone talking to my second dad? BAH! You're funny, Kendra!")

"No, no! Please, how is he?"

"Last time I heard, he exhumed Rose's body. That was when told me about that nut allergy."

"What?? Rose Klein had a nut allergy!"

Uh-oh! "You didn't know Rose was allergic to nuts?"

"Well, how could I? Rose always commented about Patti's Pecan Pies! She would scarf those slices like it was her last day or something!"

Well, that meant she also didn't know Rose took a histamine prevention drug that strengthen the immune system. Her body's high tolerance with nutty food fool everyone. If she took the drug an hour before consumption, she was okay. But her last day...

"Oh no..." I told Michelle what Spencer told me. She paced around her car in shock. I can't blame her. This was a complete shock. She came back to me. "Oh my God, Spencer found out what caused her death! He knew she had a nut allergy, and yet he didn't know what caused her death until now!!"

"Yeah." I said simply. Michelle jumped and laughed at the fact. "You know what this MEANS! He COULDN'T have done it! He's innocent, INNOCENT I tell ya!"

"I believe you!" I said over her maddening expression. She giggled over this fact. "He was focused on that surgery to notice..." Her joy then changed to sorrow. "Oh...He couldn't have saved her. He tried everything to get her back."

"Yeah." I said softly. "How could he have known that someone put an I.V. full of almond essence on her arm."

"What did you say?"

"Uh...someone...injected almond essence in her by I.V."

She went crazy. She looked like she didn't know what to do! She could NOT handle that information all at once. Grace and Pearl saw what she was doing and ran over to her as best friends should do. They calmed her down and gave her some tea. Once Michelle finished chugging that bottle, she gave them the information I told her. They didn't flip out, but they were shocked.

"No wonder Eleanor was pale when she came back from her break!" Grace informed the others. Pearl nodded in agreement. "I would be too! I never know Rose had a nut allergy!"

"I KNOW!" Michelle blurted out. "It's so sudden! Why didn't Daddy tell me??"

"Daddy?" Pearl asked her. "Oh! You mean Spencer? I'm sure had a perfectly good reason not to tell you."

"Oh, he better!" Michelle went straight to her car and opened the door. "Come on! Everyone in the car! We're gonna see the doctor!" Pearl and Grace ran to the car. Michelle's head came out of the window, looking up at me. "You too."

"Me??" I asked. It was when John and his buddies came over from the field. When he saw me getting into the car with Michelle, he ran to me.

"Babe?" He asked me with concern. "Is everything okay?"

"I'll explain everything to you when the nerves are settled down. I'll text you." I held up my smartphone. He hugged me, whispering to me. "It would be better if you call me. That phone is called a phone first for a reason."

"Eh, what the hell?" Michelle rolled her eyes. "Get in the back with Pearl and Grace. We'll tell you in person what's going on."

And that was that. The five of us were in Michelle's car driving to the Orlando Memorial Hospital while we explained to John what was going on. He felt surprised by the time we reached the hospital. "WHAT? You mean someone intentionally killed Rose by cyanide poisoning??"

"Well, if you put it like that, yeah." Pearl replied. She tapped Michelle's shoulder and leaned over. "Hey Mi-mi, he does have a point. Almonds do create cyanide."

"Yeah, but the killer didn't know that!" Grace informed her. "If he did, he would have never done it! He only knew Rose was allergic to nuts. With her being the age that she was, everyone would assume she died peacefully in her sleep."

"While she was under?" Michelle asked. She tapped her steering wheel as she stopped at a red light. "Well, yeah, that is possible. And with the surgery requiring her to fast, no one would suspect she would eat anything, least not with nuts."

We continued our journey when the light changed to green. We kept going until we reached the hospital. Once there, we hatched a plan on how to get in touch with the doctor. On my end, that was easy. I simply told the receptionist Dr. Caliber was expecting me for the follow up. She looked up the schedule. Her eyes popped open.

"Wow! You're right, you are scheduled to come here today!" The receptionist told Michelle and I. We thought to ourselves holy shit, our lie is the truth! "Please wait until someone calls you."

"Okay." I said with a convincing smile. When we turned to the others, the receptionist called us back. "Hold up...is she your family member?" She was pointing at Michelle. I put my fingernail close to my lip. But I remember our discussion earlier and nodded. "Yes! Michelle is my cousin."

"Is that right. You two don't like you're related."

"Does family have to be of one color, M'am?" Michelle asked her. The receptionist bit her tongue at that one. After all, we are living in world of an open mind as it should a long time ago. "Yeah, we're cousins. We share one paternal member...her uncle and my dad."

"Got it! Got it! You can see the doc when someone calls you."

It didn't take long when a nurse called my name. Michelle and went straight in. They checked on my weight and stuff, though it wasn't all necessary. They were surprised at my weight though. At my last visit, I weighted about 210 lbs. (Yes, I'm a large woman, but I have mostly muscles.) In this visit, they told me I lost eleven pounds. It was funny because they weighed me while I was unconscious, and people had to push me on the scale. Oh yeah, their weight added mine.

"Wow! You lost eleven pounds in three days??" Michelle asked me while we waited for Caliber. "How is that possible?"

"Magic." I said with a smug look. That was partially true, and I will show the magic trip on our way how, but first, we needed to talk to our uncle and daddy to set things straight. When he came in, he explained to us he knew we were coming. "I called Daisuke and said your car sped off, Michelle. This was after he told me about what he told the police."

Michelle gasped. I had to talk on her behalf. "So, you know now how she died officially?"

"Yeah." He sat up on the counter next to the sink and sunk. "Oh, poor Rose. My poor sweet Rose. You've been plucked so soon by one of your thorns!"

Michelle and I knew he was heartbroken. We comforted him by hugging him. He felt the comfort and hugged us back. "Thank you, you two. Kendra, I hardly knew you. But I feel that somewhere, in one of lifetimes, we know each other our whole lives. I think it's time that I should tell you something. When the time is right, you would let my fellow friends know."

"Know?" Michelle asked. "Know what? What can we tell us what you can't?"

"And can't you tell this yourself?" I asked him. "I mean certainly you have a lot of people that care about you. I'm sure whatever you have to tell us, they'd be as understandable."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Caliber moved to the door. "Come on. I don't have patients between now and ten so we can talk in my office."

And so, he talked to us and told us about his dark secret. Yes, I knew that he and Rose were lovers, and the last they had sex was under the oak tree. However, during that last love making, someone took a picture of them. When he told us about picture part, Michelle and I held hands. Dr. Caliber and Rose were one his first victims.

"Well, at first we didn't know that the Flasher was there. It only took a few days later before our discussion of her gallbladder surgery that she showed me."

"Showed you what?" Michelle asked. Caliber sucked through his teeth. "She showed a text from an unknown number. It said that he knew we have been together for some time and that we were intimate. And he threatened us to ruin our reputations if we don't pay him."

"Oh God!" Michelle said, holding her head. I sighed. "Wow! And was Rose scared?"

"Actually, no. Instead of shaking like a leaf, she laughed at the text. Her strong words is still with me to this day. 'Spency,' she said to me. 'I'm not giving him any satisfaction. He will not treat me like a captive to bend at his will! I'm no miser, but I will never give any wrongdoers a dime! And the sex thing? That's your business and mine. However, if he wants to sell us out in public, then I will do it first. If he thinks he could threaten me, he chose the wrong person to do so!'"

"Wow!" I cried out. "She's so strong!" I then felt my heart sink again. "It's a shame she didn't get the chance to tell her story."

The doctor nodded. "I know. She would have beaten that Flasher. But first thing's first, and her gallbladder needed to come out. She said dealing with the pain in her tummy is worse than giving birth. And that is painful!"

Michelle put all the things in her head and her face flashed into a realization mode. "Whoa! I think I may have an idea as to why someone killed Rose."

Her idea struck a chord. Rose was stubborn and a fighter. If someone tries to blackmail her, she calls the blackmailer's bluff. And this blackmailer knew she was a tough egg to crack. And his egg started to boil when he found out she would do neither of his requests. She wouldn't pay him or make any sex videos so he can fap later. So, if he received neither of the two options, he opted give the victims the third option of payment. And Rose paid the price in full on that operation table.

It was a dark opinion, but it makes a whole lot of sense. And now it is possible we have another thing to add about the Flasher. When it comes to people that trumped his card, he becomes a sore loser. And when his soreness becomes bitter, he would make that person pay, one way or another. Dr. Caliber didn't like the fact that the Flasher was more than a pervy blackmailer. Now, he escalated to a murderer.

"I'm not going to stand for this." He told the girls. He clenched his fists tightly so much, he bled. "No. He crossed the line. I'm going to call the police, tell them what I we now know."

"What we assume." I said to the doctor. "It could be only be an opinion."

"But it's a strong opinion." He said, grabbing his pen jotted something down. Michelle and watched him scribbling so hard with his shaky hand the paper almost ripped. Once he finished, he ripped it from the book and gave the slip to me. "Here, take it. This is my confession about my time with Rose. Like I said, by the time is right, you reveal it."

I gently took the slip. "Are you sure you don't want to talk to your friends yourself?"

"No dear. I'm afraid by the time I would open my mouth to the world, I would never that the chance."

He said with a sad smile. Michelle's eyes started to mist. "Oh no! Spencer, you're not going to do something crazy will you?" She grabbed his hands and put her face on them. "Please, Spence, please don't do something stupid! Please don't kill yourself!"

"No, no, no child. Relax. I won't do that. And I won't bother you about my problem any further. Remember, the Flasher told us to pay. I'm still paying for our intimacy. Well, I paid the whole payment, as he requested. But..."

"But he asked for more?" I asked horrified.

"That's right. It's not my reputation I was afraid, but of my patients'. They too are being blackmailed. So, I helped them out...free treatments, no bills to pay. And I did record the texts they received from him. Do you want me to send it to you?"

I gasped. I realized we have a window of opportunity! "Yes! We have a guy that could track the texts from a certain phone! He'll figure out who the person is."

"Good! I'll send them to you later. Now then, I think you should head to that diner and cool yourselves. It's a lot of heat to break."

He was right. We could use something cool. We thanked the doctor for giving us the why and the window to give us the who. We left his office with our heads above the shoulders. Finally! We could find out about who the Flasher! Little did know...

We walked past President McMichael while turning the corner to exit. I couldn't help but look back. Why was he here? Did he have some appointment with some other doctor? Was he coming ill or in pain? I couldn't put on it, but no matter we need to cool ourselves.

When we drove back to Camp Hattawata, we talked about how we need to expose the Flasher soon. When we told our audience about the Flasher's third option of payment, they were like "WHAT!" Oh yeah, even John looked like he crapped himself! Pearl and Grace turned white and hugged John.

"That's..." Pearl trailed off. "You don't think he would do something like that again, would you?"

"Phoo, as long as you pay him, he won't give you the axe." Michelle spoke calmly as she turned to the pathway back to Camp Hattawata. She didn't look like she was scared, but she was terrified. She knew as much as we do, we needed to catch that guy as fast as we could. She shrunk her fear when she got her tigress side back. "And we're going to tell our fellow dicks. You guys talk to Frank. I'll talk to Michael."

"Wait, what?" I said to her. "You want to talk to Michael, the man who made you cry."

"He was young, dumb and full of cu—" She cut her sentence and coughed. "Constipation." She parked her car in front of the diner. John got out of the car, complaining about his legs being squashed at the back seat.

"Babe, I'll be somewhere with my friends. They dumped their texts at me asking me why I left all the sudden. I want to tell them what happened."

I nodded. "Yeah, we are so sorry for bringing you."

"No, it's all good. Pearl and Grace offered me a highlight and a chic cut on my first visit to Eleanor's."

Michelle rolled her eyes. "Oh...my...ahem! Well, they mean well. They're thinking about your well being and want to cheer you up."

"I know. I told I returned the favor by offering them a nice soccer lesson. They declined."

Michelle laughed at that statement. "Keep him, Kendra! He's a smart ass, and we women need a smart ass."

"Only to a point." I said to her. I was about to follow John, but Michelle stopped. Me. "What's up?"
"I wanna talk to you." We closed the doors and we sat on the heating car seats for a minute. "Hey, listen, Kendra, I want to thank you for letting me come with you to see Doc. It was a surprise he knew we were coming. And well, I guess he knew me better than I thought."

"Well of course he did." I said to her. "After all, he thinks of you as a daughter."

Michelle smiled and leaned back. "Yeah, you're right. Still, the cleverness to add you on the list of patients... it's so uncanny. He's like a rare silver fox with a unicorn horn that frolics in Disney World."

It was a strange description of Dr. Caliber, but I knew she was right. She looked at me. "You know...about that outburst before we parked here..."

"Yeah, what was all that about?" I asked her.

"Well, kid, he and I used to have a deep relationship back in New York. We both were passionate about one another. And yeah, we fought a lot, but what loving couple didn't, right? Ah, well, about three years ago, Mikey (that's what call him) wanted to talk to me while we were having dinner at his place."

"Yeah?"

"We had a lovely dinner. He served me my favorite ribeye steak with baked potatoes and broccoli salad. I was content with the meal. But what he wanted to talk about made the broccoli I ate rotten. He held my hands and told me he...wants to have an open relationship with me."

Uh-oh! It's one of those issues. Someone who wants a one-way commitment had someone who wanted more than one way. Okay, my opinion about it is NO! If someone wants to have more than one person in a relationship and you want to have only your SO, that's an impasse for you. Unless you're more than open with the idea and want to take a girlfriend or two to go to bed with him, dump his ass! Otherwise, if you want an open relationship and your partner doesn't like the idea, you either stay committed to that partner and compromise, or break up and find someone else.

Well, Michelle was one clever girl, and a snarky one at that. She didn't like the idea of an open relationship. Chances are he would cheat on her while she wasn't looking. The last thing she wanted was to stay at home worrying about him while he was out partying and banging. She knew better. In a sly speech, she agreed.

"Oh yeah, Mike. Okay, I can agree to this. Sure, you can bang on your side chick at your station, and I'll fuck that sexy Thai taxi driver on a subway."

Ha! Mike's face dropped when she told him this! And she set him straight about open relationships. "Honey, being in open relationships doesn't give you the right to bang someone while I work like a damn bitch. I want some fun too. Okay sure, call that secretary from the mayor and let her give you some head. I'll call that new young plumber to give me the best pipe job to pop my kitchen sink!"

And you thought she was done, hell no! "You wanna party with some girls from your workplace? Fine, I'll have a girl's weekend at the Bellagio and give the boys from Thunder from Down Under a tremendous wet ass purses!" (You know what I said! Purses...as in pussies for tips.)

"Oh yeah, he didn't like that idea of me banging on some boys. He thought he'd be the one having the fun. He went off the idea of an open relationship from here on out. I thought it was settled that he and I are in a strong commitment."

"He proved you wrong?"

"And HOW! I went on his laptop one day while he was shopping for some gym shorts. And that was rare of him to shop for anything. Well, I wanted to buy something from Amazon for his birthday. I figured out his password (his pet name for me) and Pop came Pornhub and Tinder!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh yeah, he set up an account on that thing! He decided not to keep it in his pants after all cheat on my anyway. The proof was in the texts he made to his side chicks! 'Let's do this from that porn vid! Let's do that from this porn vid!' Ugh! I thought I was gonna die!"

"Let me guess. You decided to get him back."

"You damn right I did! Since he decided to let his cock out of his pants, I want to display my pussy. And I put up my Tinder page. And guess what?"

"What?"

"Michael was out with his 'boys', but I knew what he was really doing. So, I made my move. I called that Thai guy and asked him to come over. While he was coming. I packed all of Michael's things and threw them out of the apartment. Well, that guy came over with a dazed look on his face. So, I explained to him that boyfriend was cheating on me and I was horny. So...he cheered me right up!"