“The thing is, though, Lwa aren’t evil beings that run about torturing and killing. In a rudimentary sense they are messengers. Because of that, I figured that this particular spirit wasn’t a generally accepted Lwa but instead had to be one that this person elevated to Godhood in her own mind.”
“Thank you for the primer. However, I still do not understand what this spirit has to do with Felicity? Why would it choose to possess her?”
“That’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question, Helen. I’m not sure either, but I can tell you that Felicity was being ridden by someone or something who wasn’t particularly friendly, and that’s when the so-called incident occurred.
“In a nutshell, after physically assaulting me and managing to twist the situation such that it got me arrested instead of her, my wife disappeared. Well, actually while Ben was getting me out of jail, she went home and changed clothes.”
“That seems to be an odd thing to do.”
“Normally, I’d agree, but given where she was heading, it actually made a bizarre kind of sense. So, anyhow, Ben called Agent Mandalay and asked her to stop by our house just on the off chance that Felicity went there. When she arrived, Felicity was in fact still in the house, but things went south. Felicity-actually at that point, Miranda-assaulted Agent Mandalay, somehow managed to get the upper hand then took her weapon and really did disappear for a while.
“Obviously, we managed to find her but only after several hours. And, this is why the change of clothes-she went over to a fetish nightclub on the East side, picked up a guy, and took him back to a motel.”
Helen looked at me, a note of concern in her face. “But, surely she did not kill him, did she?”
I shook my head. “No. The Lwa jumped ship before she got that far. She did manage to do a serious number on him with her high heels, though. Literally trampled him until he was bloody and unconscious.”
“Do you have any idea why the possession ended so suddenly?”
“Actually, that’s typical for a Lwa possession. They pop in and pop out. Although, I don’t have an answer for why this one didn’t complete its task before it left. I suppose it could be because taking over Felicity had to be some kind of accidental collateral possession-because she doesn’t practice Voodoo and certainly didn’t consciously invite it in, that I’m aware of.
“In fact, prior to showing up at the Hobbes crime scene, she would tend to fight it whenever she would realize an attack was happening. Of course, that was before I had a handle on what it actually was, so I wasn’t much help in that department. Anyway, I suspect she was still trying to fight it to some extent even then, so I guess it was kind of like a host rejecting a transplant or something of that sort. But, that’s only a pet theory. Either way, I’m just glad she didn’t kill the guy.”
“How serious did his injuries turn out to be?”
“She hurt him pretty bad,” I replied. “He spent a day in the hospital, which I’m sure I’ll end up getting a bill for. But, when the cops talked to him, he refused to press charges against her. Seems he actually liked getting stomped on by her so much he wants to ‘submit to Mistress Miranda’ again. He somehow even managed to make the connection between Felicity and the pseudonym. Probably from the cops would be my guess since he was actually being urged to press charges. Anyhow, he got her business number and has called several times.”
“I am sure that is disconcerting for Felicity.”
“Yeah. She was a bit freaked out at first. After the fifth or sixth time though, she just switched on a whole alpha female persona and ordered him to stop calling her. That seemed to do the trick, for now at least.”
“Obviously you think he will call again.”
“He seemed pretty fixated on her, so, no, I’m not going to rule it out.”
“Does this bother you?”
“Well yeah, stalkers are not something you take lightly. And, even if he isn’t dangerous it’s just plain annoying.”
“No, Rowan. What I mean is are you jealous?”
I thought about that for a moment. I hadn’t really considered jealousy as a possibility, consciously anyway, so I weighed it carefully before responding.
“I don’t know, to be honest. I don’t think I am. I mean, she was being ridden by a Lwa when the encounter happened, so it’s not like she was cheating on me. However, she did tell me that when she snapped back to reality, she was so aroused that she didn’t exactly stop right away.”
“And, naturally, that concerns you,” she remarked.
“Maybe a little. But, the sudden exit of a Lwa tends to leave the horse disoriented. Even if she thinks she knew what she was doing, she didn’t really know what she was doing. Does that make sense?”
“Of course. However, that was not the aspect of jealousy I was asking about.”
“Okay, so why else would I be jealous?’
“Because, in a sense this man is fulfilling your wife’s sexual fantasies and you are not.”
“Feeling a little direct today, Helen?”
“Am I not always direct?”
“Yeah, I suppose you are. For the most part.”
“So?”
“So, I really haven’t given it that much thought.”
“Yes, Rowan, you have.”
“Okay, so yeah. I have.”
“And?”
“And, yeah,” I shrugged. “Maybe I am a little jealous.”
“Have you spoken to Felicity about it?”
“No.”
“You need to.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I will when things calm down a bit.”
“Good,” she offered with a nod then extracted a fresh cigarette and lit it before changing the subject. “So, what about Constance? Is she well? She seemed to be fine when she attended the funeral service with Benjamin.”
I hadn’t even given thought to calling Agent Mandalay, Constance, when I had spoken of her earlier, even though we certainly knew one another well enough. I suppose I was so caught up in the story that the informality hadn’t had a chance to creep in. Of course, it stood to reason that Helen would use her first name since the petite federal agent had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with her brother for more than a year.
“She’s fine. Felicity mainly just managed to stun her enough that she could get her own handcuffs on her,” I explained then quickly added, “Don’t spread that around.”
“Of course not. Are there going to be any repercussions?”
“I don’t think so. Constance actually pulled some strings and so did Ben, so there weren’t any charges filed. However…”
I felt, as much as heard my own voice trail off into silence.
“However, what, Rowan?”
“Your brother told me something when we were out looking for Felicity that night. Apparently, they found long red hairs at both crime scenes. The Wentworth scene could have been a fluke since she was physically there taking the photos, but she was never actually inside the room at the Hobbes scene, and they were there too.”
“Did he tell you they were definitely from Felicity?”
“No, but they took a few samples from her for comparison when they had her in custody, and we haven’t heard anything yet. In fact, ever since that day we’ve been persona non grata as far as the investigation goes. They’ve made no secret of the fact that they consider Felicity a “person of interest”, but they haven’t gone so far as to call her a suspect. At least not yet.”
“I see,” Helen said with a nod then turned her head and proceeded to look out at the broken cloud cover.
“Anyway, that’s the story. And, that’s when the nightmare started. And, like I said, it’s just been getting worse since.”
“So,” she said after an uncomfortable pause. “Now, you believe Felicity is leading a double life and actually killed those two men.”
I looked back at her with complete incredulity twisting my features. “Hell no! Where in the world did you get that?”
“So, then why is it you told me you think Felicity is the woman in your nightmare?”