It was a little dark inside the SUV but Neri June could definitely see
everybody there. The driver did not look like an ordinary driver. Oriental
features and skin color. Lacoste shirt and an expensive pair of washed out
Armani jeans. He spoke with that peculiar Visayan-Tagalog halo-halo accent
heard often in Davao City and among taxi drivers in MetroManila.
Arnie, who acted with studied deference to the driver, was younger, in his mid
thirties. He was the one who held out his hand for Neri June and Jennifer to
hold onto, as they got into the vehicle. He was barrel-chested and Neri June
concluded that he was the Lacoste bodyguard. He wore a dark maroon jacket
favored by many minor politicians all over the Philippines and had a bulge in
the right hip, possibly a sidearm, a common personal paraphernalia during the
wild logging days of Agusan when Butuan was the center of the world and
millionaires-for-a-day were a dime a dozen.
The third person in the vehicle was a tall lanky man with a deep cavernous
voice who spoke in monosyllables. One is reminded of the typical undertaker,
the skin under his eyes baggy and dark, as if sleep-deprived. Jennifer suffered
goose-pimples and felt a chill when their eyes met. He was the other
non-entity, the shadow of the fourth person. He also wore a jacket, except, of
course, it was midnight black.
The fourth was emphysematous Roger whose shirt reeked of stale tobacco and
whose teeth were stained with nicotine and tar. He was slightly built and short
and he sounded like he was trying too hard to give the impression that he was
in charge. He gave the girls the chocolate candies.
Everybody introduced everybody around but the names were of questionable
validity as even the girls themselves gave aliases. They drove around and in
and out of Montilla Boulevard for about twenty minutes, engaged in
inconsequential generic small talk.
Nobody noticed that there was another white SUV unobtrusively following them
from a distance.
Neri June, on her own, had previously negotiated the price on the cell phone.
She had not gathered the courage to tell Jennifer anything yet. Jennifer, on
the other hand, was at first, apprehensive, not knowing exactly what was going
on, but after a while, and after three chocolate candies, she loosened up and
started to smile and join in on the conversation.
"What are we doing here?" Jennifer whispered to Neri June during a momentary
lull.
"We're out to make big bucks?"
"What?"
"Come on, you heard me. Do you want to make some good money?"
"What? You mean..Ner, you must be insane!"
"No, I'm not. We talked about this before. Forty thousand for you. Forty
thousand! No more than two hours."
"But that was just talk. I never thought you would go through with it."
"Come on, girl. It's easy. We need the money. I know I do."
"I don't need it that badly." Jennifer started thinking about Tony, wondering
what his reaction would be if he knew what Neri June's plans were.
"Hey, what are you two whispering about?" Roger thought the girls were talking
about him.
"Hi hi hi! Girl talk, you know." Neri June touched Roger's knee and gently
massaged it. He moaned like he was pre-ejaculatory. Neri June could tell the
man was an easy target. Ten minutes tops and he'd be terminal and it would be
over with. Easy money. "Too bad." Neri June thought. He had insisted on paying
for someone with an intact innocence, which makes one suspect that the woman he
married was not.
"I don't feel good." Jennifer whispered.
"What? Anak ng pucha! Not now!" Neri June exclaimed in dismay.
"Oooh, I don't feel good. This time, everybody heard her.
"Open the window, quick!" Roger ordered. The walking skeleton reacted swiftly,
opened the window close to him, then moved to the other side and opened that
window, too. Neri June took Jennifer's hand and started rubbing it.
"Okay, Jenn. Not now, Jenn, it's all right. Bend down, put your head between
your knees and take deep breaths."
"I can't breathe if I bend down!"
"Oh, for goodness sake, just go ahead and take deep breaths." Neri June was
getting distressed. Not now, she thought. The money! We almost have it!
"Why don't you loosen up your belt. It will make you feel better." Roger
commanded and reached out to loosen her belt. Jennifer did not resist and
leaned backward so he could undo it.
While this drama was going on, the fancy pants Armani driver proceeded to drive
to the hotel. "We're here. Why don't we all go up to the second floor lobby?
It's cooler up there." It was almost two in the morning and the main lobby was
dark and was usually closed for business after eleven. Only one drowsy night
secretary was behind the registration desk and she was used to seeing men with
women or women with men go up to the second floor suites at all hours of the
night. Although prostitution was discouraged by the management, the night shift
personnel tolerated this 'victimless' crime. Besides, they also got their share
of the bounty. Sometimes their one week share would be more than their monthly
salaries. The night guards benefited from these transactions, too, and were
known to keep a list with contact numbers of the "college students" who were
available for temporary companionship. Their one admirable quality was their
discretion.
So the secretary and guard were not particularly alarmed by the sight of four
men and two good looking young girls walk past them at this early morning hour.
Besides, they both recognized the men who occupied two of the more expensive
suites. They noticed that the pretty one needed assistance, as if she was
inebriated, but she seemed to go with the rest on her own volition.
By the time they got to the second floor, Jennifer was really feeling
miserable.
"I feel faint."
"Why don't you lie down on the bench while I tidy up my room." Roger
volunteered while at the same time motioning to Neri June to go to the other
suite with the driver.
"I think that's a good idea. I do feel like vomiting."
Neri June quickly ran to the other room and came back with a waste can and a
wet face towel and applied the cold towel to Jennifer's forehead and nape.
"Jenn, Jenn, are you feeling any better? Do you want me to call an ambulance?"
"Heck, no, I don't think that would be necessary. Her color is coming back.
Roger, go ahead and take her to your room. A couple of minutes flat on the bed
will do wonders for her." The driver, the obvious leader of the four, did not
seem worried. He motioned to the bag of bones to help Roger lead Jennifer to
the suite and took Neri June's hand, taking her towards his own room. Neri June
offered no resistance.
"Wait, wait, let me get my bag." Neri June found it and tried to see if her
cell phone was still there. She checked for missed text messages, and seeing
none, put the cell phone back into her bag. She also checked to make sure that
the coca-cola was no longer cold. "Jenn, you're gonna be all right. I'll be
right next door. Don't worry, just knock on the wall if you need me."
Jennifer was now lying on her back on the bed while Roger kept applying the wet
face towel on her forehead. "God, I feel awful. I only had a couple of beers. I
didn't have supper tonight and I thought the chocolate would help but it seems
to have made things worse. God, this is so embarrassing." She mumbled groggily.
Roger, sitting on the side of the bed, squeezed her arm and said, "It's okay.
I'll take care of you." He then signaled to his sidekick to leave the room.
The latter complied with a grunt and closed the door behind him.
The cold compress on her forehead and Roger's soft, droning voice made Jennifer
relax as she drifted off to an uneasy sleep. She didn't know how long she was
out but she was awakened by a warm, tingly feeling on her chest. She groaned
from the unfamiliar but pleasant sensation and opened her eyes only to find
Roger massaging her left breast while sucking the other. It took her a few
seconds to be half-way awake and to realize what was happening. She quickly
jerked Roger's head off her by grabbing and pulling on the hair on the back of
his head with both hands and simultaneously hitting his chest with both knees,
pushing him off her as he was on top of her. He did not weigh much. The man was
caught by surprise as he fell off the side of the bed. His head hit the hard
floor with sickening thud.
Jennifer saw that she still had her shirt on but the front had been unbuttoned
and her bra had not been unfastened but had been pulled down towards her waist.
She jumped off the other side of the bed and pressed her back against the wall,
at the same time pulling up her bra and buttoning up her shirt.
"Don't touch me!! Don't come near me or I will scream!" She yelled
hysterically.
"No, don't shout! I swear, I won't take another step towards you." Roger was
squatting on the floor and touching the back of his head with the palm of his
right hand and checking for blood. There was some. The scalp on the back of his
head had a half inch gash. "But your friend and I had an agreement!" he whined
like someone about to be decapitated.
"What are you talking about?"
"Earlier tonight. I talked to your friend on the phone. She said she had
explained everything to you and that you agreed. Forty thousand if you're a
virgin."
"What! You.you monster!! Stay where you are or I will smash your face! What did
you put in the chocolate?" Jennifer, barely five feet tall, snarled, appeared
ready to attack Roger who was on the other side of the bed. She had found one
shoe and was holding it in her hand like a weapon.
"Miss, nothing! Miss, please, I swear I didn't lace the candy with anything. We
just wanted to have fun."
"Pervert! I'm going to report you to the police!"
"No, please, Ma'am. Don't! I have a family!" Roger continued to whine while
still sitting on his bottom on the floor, looking absolutely helpless. "Here,
take this, there's almost fifty thousand pesos there." Roger took the wad of
money from his right pant pocket and offered it to Jennifer.
Jennifer was fully conscious now. She eyed the money while searching the floor
for her other shoe with her right foot. She could not find it. She grabbed her
bag which was on the nightstand. She had her shirt all buttoned up now and her
belt re-buckled as she inched her way to the door, holding the shoe with her
right hand heel up.
"Keep your money. Animal! I don.t want to see your face in Butuan ever again.
My father will kill you. She spat at Roger as she hurriedly got out the room
and slammed the door behind her. She ran down the stairs with one shoe on. The
registrar"s head was propped up on her desk. She was snoring.
"Where's my friend?" Jennifer demanded from the guard who was stationed near
the main door.
"I don't know, ma'am. She may have left while I was 'roving' the premises."
Most guards of businesses and residences do a scheduled inspection of the
property grounds to keep from falling asleep and to discourage
would-be-burglars.
"Go up and check and make sure she's safe, just in case she is still there."
"Yes, ma'am," the guard answered back but added "bitch" when she got on the
tricycle and could no longer hear him. He was expecting a tip.
She was lucky to find a "trisikad." At that hour, most of the drivers of this
ingenuous Filipino invention shall have already been gone and only the more
hardy ones would stick around hotels expecting ladies of the night as
passengers. These women are usually quite generous especially if they scored
more than once that night.
Jennifer must have been on the tricycle for only about five minutes when the
driver of a white SUV waved at her. She paid the barefoot tricycle operator and
got off the contraption.
"Come on in and let me drive you home," said the familiar voice.
"Oh, thank God you.re here! You can't believe what happened tonight." She got
on the SUV and they turned left on Doongan Road from J.C. Aquino Avenue. The
streetlight was broken and the road was dark. "What are you doing out so la.."
Jennifer did not get to finish her question as her eyes widened in disbelief.
He plunged his shimmering knife into the pit of her stomach with such a force
that the tip almost got buried on the body of the eighth vertebra, severing her
aorta completely. He pulled the knife out and sliced at her left breast then
expertly probed the sharp end of the knife in a twisting motion, hard up inside
her vagina toward her cervix and uterus as she sled down the leather seat in a
lifeless heap.
"How could you?" a deep, low, primitive growl as he raised his knife again and
again in rapid frenetic succession. "You're nothing but a prostitute! I loved
you. How could you?"
There was no blood on the seat and there was not much on the floor mat. Two
buckets of blood filled the abdominal cavity, the aorta having poured blood out
hard like an open faucet. Jennifer was dead in less than a minute. Her last
conscious thought was an incongruous 'Twinkle, twinkle.'
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