The Teeth: The Finale

This week at The Writer’s Block, I’m posting the final part of my original short story “The Teeth.” If you missed parts 1 & 2, just scroll down and catch up before reading the finale. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for visiting my blog. AN

The Finale

“She was asking for my help Lou.” Max said again, this time she sounded frightened. “I know it was just a dream but it started to feel prophetic, as if the dream returned just so I could help her.” Max looked at Lou and waited for her friend to wonder out loud if she were insane -or worse, laugh at her, believing that Max had lost her mind.

Lou did anything but; for the first time since they sat down, she set aside her food and gave her friend a big hug. Lou was the only person who knew about this dream, and how much Max feared its return. Regardless of why the dream was back, Lou wanted to be supportive -laughing or doubting her friends’ sanity was the furthest thing from her mind.

Max choked back some tears, she hated to cry -never thought anything good ever came of it. She was grateful to Lou however, and showed her appreciation in the only way she knew how, by giving Lou her nachos.

“Night after night I would hear him come home, and then he would leave with that ugly bag        -fuller than it was before. Every time I spied on this guy through my window, I felt like that nosey neighbor on “Bewitched,” you know the one, Mrs. Kravitz, who always saw Samantha do something witchy, but by the time she called her husband, everything would magically go back to normal. It would be just my luck that this whole late night drama was nothing more than a guy who loved to bowl in the wee hours of the morning.” 

“But the dream continued, like it was pleading with me to do something.  I couldn’t call police with a hunch; they would think I was like that old nosey Mrs. Kravitz. I knew that every night at about 3:30, I’d wake from the dream and The Teeth would be leaving his house. So I thought what if I called the police a few minutes before he left, and told them that a suspicious man, fitting The Teeth’s description, was breaking into his apartment. Maybe they would come and catch him in the middle of whatever it was he was doing.” 

Saying it out loud made Max feel crazy, and it didn’t help that Lou asked, “But Max, what if he was innocent?” 

“I knew I was taking a chance, but I had hunch, and I kept seeing the face of that red headed woman -I just couldn’t ignore it. The dream kept changing, finally settling on a scenario where I’m standing in front of the peach colored house where Baby Annie lived. I walked into what looked like an old-fashioned sitting room, and standing in the corner is the woman with the red hair and yellow blouse. She’s talking to someone, she’s upset, and her arms are flailing wildly as she yells at this unseen person. Red head turns and looks at me, says help, then blood begins to appear on the front of the blouse. I wake up to the sound of my alarm -it’s 3am- time to put my pathetic plan into action.”

Lou can barely put food in her mouth, but she’s tough and keeps right on eating; watching Max as if she were the feature film they came to see.

“I call the police hoping that they would arrive at the same time The Teeth was leaving his apartment. But a little after 3 this large Black man, maybe in his 50s, shows up at the Teeth’s door. He looks nervous, glances around as if he doesn’t want anyone to see him. When I get a glimpse of his face, he looks familiar but I can’t place where I had seen him. The Teeth opens the door, the two speak briefly and the man quickly enters.”

Lou is on the edge of her seat, eating faster with each word Max spoke.

“Like clockwork, at 3:30 The Teeth leaves with his usual bag stuffed, and the Black guy in tow, carrying a larger bag. I thought the police wouldn’t make it, but just as the two headed down the path to the front gate, the officers showed up. The large Black man nearly bolted but The Teeth held him back. They begin speaking to the officers, and both men look incredibly nervous.”

Max paused for a few moments to glance back at the usher, who was in a peaceful and drooling slumber. 

“The Black guy suddenly drops his bag and runs, one of the officers went quickly after him, while officer 1 turned to cuff The Teeth, who was trying to escape in the other direction. The officer opened the brown patchwork bag, and immediately looked like he might throw up. Just then the other officer returned with the handcuffed older man in tow, and sat him next to Teeth on the stoop. When he looked in the bag his reaction was less dramatic, but he turned away pretty quickly from whatever was in there.”

“Are you going to tell me what was in that bag or not?” Lou asked, even though she had some idea.

Max didn’t answer, she just continued with her story.

“One of the officers phoned for backup, and when the detectives and the CSI unit showed up, they took The Teeth and his buddy into custody.” 

Both women fell silent -but the story wasn’t over yet. Lou looked back at the usher, now softly snoring, than looked back at Max.

“The Teeth’s real name is Daryl Bryant.” Max said in a detached voice. “He worked as some kind of IT guy at his family’s law firm and had a crush on a young intern named Stephanie Meyer -she had red hair and was last seen wearing a yellow blouse and jeans.” After hearing this, Lou dropped her last nacho.

“Daryl picked out the duplex across from mine specifically because it had a private back entrance into a storage space just off the kitchen. He kidnapped Miss Meyer one night just outside her apartment and brought her to his place through that back entrance. There was some kind of struggle and she was killed. But The Teeth didn’t have very good luck with women or with murder, because the next day the landlord had a building inspector tell him that The Teeth’s back entrance had to be sealed because the door wasn’t up to code. Mr. Sanford boarded it up until he could get someone to come out and seal it permanently.”

The theater was eerily quiet and Max hesitated, making sure no one else was in the place listening.

She went on. “This meant that The Teeth had to speed up his plans to get her body out of his apartment before the workers came to seal up the doorway. It was at this is time that the dream came back and his late night excursions began. The bastard dismembered Stephanie’s body and began taking it out piece by piece right through his front door in that hideous bag of his.”

“So who was the Black man that showed up that last night?” Lou asked. It seemed her food supply had finally exhausted.

“His name is Earl Lincoln, a maintenance man at the Bryant’s law firm, and a close friend of the family for many years. With time running out, Daryl called him to help move the rest of Stephanie’s  body.”

“Just so you know, if you ever ask me to help you move a dead body, you can forget it.” Lou said, shaking a red licorice vine in the direction of Max.

“The landlord came by earlier in the evening to tell The Teeth that workers would be by the following day to seal the back entrance. Still, I wondered why Earl would help The Teeth dispose of a body, and why he looked so familiar.” Max tried to sound matter-of-factly as she continued. “Then I found out why, Earl was the father, or so he thought, of baby Annie.”

Lou was stunned, but not enough to stop eating her licorice.

 “Daryl often came by the Lincoln house to play with some of the older kids and was there the day Annie died. He admitted to helping Earl hide Annie’s body, but says he had nothing to do with her death. Seems Old Earl didn’t want to be the father of another man’s baby, so he killed her one afternoon when his wife was out, and buried the body in their yard. When Annie’s mother found out, she felt that Annie’s death was on her hands because of her infidelity, so she confessed to the crime.”

The friends were silent again. “I can’t believe it, I’m gone for 2 weeks and I miss all of this.” Lou said, trying to make the mood a bit lighter.

“That’ll teach you to take a vacation.” Max said.

Silence again.

“So, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

The two friends sat mulling things over.

Finally Lou blurts out, “Hey, when’s this movie gonna start?”

“We’re early dude; it’s just you, me and the usher.”

Lou pulled out a bag of gummy bears, and offered one to Max.

“What’re we watching anyway?” Lou asks.

Max smiles and says, “It’s called Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.”

“Oh” Lou says, nonplussed. “I hope it starts soon.”

“Me too” Max says, “Me too.”

The End

I hope whoever read this short story enjoyed it; I plan on posting more of my original short stories in the future. Thanks again. 

Alice from The Block