~ Out Of Her Dreams ~

by

Anita Lourcey Tooke

Of all the women at the club, he had known immediately that she was the one. She had tried so hard to fit into the crowd. She wanted so desperately to please. It had been so easy to convince her to go out with him. She was so eager that she hadn’t even questioned him when he suggested meeting in Charlotte, instead of Rosemount. He’d told her it was less complicated that way. He hadn’t wanted anyone to see them together. She had been so easy, just like all the others. He’d wined them and dined them, taken them to bed a few times, gotten bored, and move on quickly.

He hadn’t planned on Eleanor falling in love. He hadn’t even been able to get her into bed. Her antiquated morals kept getting in the way.

When she had started talking about marriage, he knew he had to end it. What he hadn’t planned on was that she would be hard to get rid of painlessly. He tried to let her down easy. He told her that he wasn’t the marrying kind. She had cried and begged him for a second chance. She promised not to mention marriage again. He hadn’t believed her. Eleanor was too eager to continue the relationship. He knew she was hoping he would change his mind. What he hadn’t told her was that he was already married. It was unfortunate that she had seen him with his wife so soon after.

He had canceled his date with Eleanor for that evening. He had left a message on her machine, but she hadn’t gone home. Instead, she came straight to the restaurant where they usually met, the same restaurant where his wife wanted to have dinner. He had agreed to go so as not to arouse her suspicion.

He knew his wife was beginning to suspect him of cheating. If he hadn’t signed that prenuptial agreement, he would have left after the first year. Now, he couldn’t afford a divorce. He liked his lifestyle, but unfortunately the money was all hers. He couldn’t live as he had for the last ten years on just his salary. She was so incredibly boring. She had enough money that they could have lived anywhere in the country, but she insisted on staying in Rosemount.

They still lived on the same street, in the same house, as when they were first married. She couldn’t understand his need for the finer things in life. She was content to be the perfect little housewife. The only excitement in his life were the little affairs he had been having for most of their married life. She let him control her money. She had no idea just how much of it he had spent on other women.

He had seen Eleanor and was able to steer her away from the table before his wife had seen her. Eleanor had been furious. She demanded to know why he was seeing someone else. His good luck held, though, and she didn’t seem to suspect that he was with his wife. Not that night. He thought he had convinced her to go home, but she had waited around in the parking lot until they left. The little snoop had taken the tag number from his wife’s car and run it through the computer at work the next day at the Division of Motor Vehicles.

She was sitting in her car across the street from his house when he came home from work the next day. He had pretended not to see her, and she had driven away a few minutes later. He’d known then that there was going to be trouble, and he began making his plans. He called her at home the next afternoon. She had been cold on the phone, but agreed to meet him the following Saturday.

They had met at the mall in Charlotte. He had talked her into going for a drive with him. She was angry and demanded to know why he had deceived her. He told her that the marriage to his wife was one of convenience, and that she didn’t love him any more than he loved her. He told her that his wife was the one who had all the affairs. He even managed to cry a little as he told her how he had wanted to have children, but that his wife was too concerned about losing her figure to get pregnant.

She had seemed to believe it all. He was sure that he was out of the woods until she said, "Maybe if I go to her and tell her how much we love each other, she’ll give you a divorce. It won’t be easy for me to marry a divorced man, but I love you so much, I know we can work this out."

The very thought of her talking to his wife had sent cold chills down his spine and made him feel like throwing up. He’d been able to fool his wife for ten years, and he wasn’t going to let some naïve little fool mess it up now. He hid his anger and asked her to go for a drive with him to talk.

Eleanor continued to talk as they drove. She hadn’t noticed his silence. He listened and his feelings of dread had grown to tantamount proportions. He’d known then that he had to do it. He’d come prepared. He couldn’t let her ruin everything he had worked so hard for all these years.

She had been so busy planning their life together that she paid scant attention to where they were going. When he had turned onto the rutted dirt track that ran through the woods along county road CR 358, she had looked up in surprise. "What are we doing here?" she’d asked.

He’d turned to her and said, "I thought we might take a little moonlight stroll and make some plans for our future." She’d thrown her arms around his neck and cried tears of happiness.

What a little fool she’d been. She had clung to his arm as they walked deep into the woods away from the car. She’d prattled on and on incessantly. He hadn’t listened, just nodded his head occasionally and that was all the response she’d needed.

When they were about a mile into the woods, he’d stopped and taken her into his arms. He’d kissed her passionately, and she’d responded just as she always had. He’d kissed and caressed her until she was breathless and seemed barely able to stand up. Eleanor told him that they had to stop. She couldn’t do these things with him again until they were married.

Carefully, he slipped the knife from his waistband. She looked up into his eyes just as he stabbed her in the back. He watched her eyes widen, and then she started screaming and struggling to get away from him. He held her tightly and stabbed her several more times. She finally stopped screaming, and he let her fall to the ground

He watched her for a few minutes. Her eyes were wide open; her mouth frozen in a silent scream. Blood covered the simple white dress she’d worn and dripped onto the ground. Convinced that she was dead, he returned to the car to retrieve the shovel he’d brought along to bury her. Everything had gone just as planned, but when he returned with the shovel, Eleanor was gone.

In a state of panic, he looked for her, fear gnawing at his insides. He knew she couldn’t have gotten far. She was too weak. The scarlet river on the ground was mute testament to just how badly she’d been injured. She had to be close by, he’d assured himself.

He shined the flashlight around the area, scanning the ground for any sign of her. He spotted marks in the leaves where she had dragged herself along. He’d followed the trail and found her lying near the tree line at the edge of CR 358. She wasn’t moving, and her eyes were closed.

He leaned over to pick her up and take her farther back into the woods when he was caught in the glare of the headlights. Panicked, he looked up. Realizing his mistake, he started shouting for the driver to stop. He ran toward the car, not knowing what he was going to do.

The vehicle hesitated. Then, the engine raced, and the car left quickly. He couldn’t see who was at the wheel, only that the car was a late model black Ford. He’d been scared then and raced back to his car and left. Only later had he realized that he dropped his flashlight and left the shovel near the spot where he had killed her.

He watched the paper for an account of the murder. On Monday, he read the newspaper story and was relieved that they had not yet released her name. Now he had more time to gather his thoughts and plan. He was sure that no one who knew him had seen them together.

He’d worn gloves that night so fingerprints wouldn’t identify him. If only that car hadn’t come along. Another ten minutes and he would have been deep into the woods with her body. He wondered how much the driver had seen.

The moon had been only a thin slice in the sky that night, and it had been very dark. He wished that he’d not yelled. Perhaps they hadn’t heard. He’d wait now and watch.

The police would release information to the public through the paper. He’d bide his time and decide what his next move would be based on what he read and what he heard around town. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about.

The rain had certainly washed away much of the evidence. Since he didn’t believe in God, he chalked it up to just another lucky break for him.